Hidden Valley Hibiscus Forum

Hi all,

It looks as though most people have their shipments, from January, (talk about being patient)  So lets see how great everyone's new CVs look :D

Here is Burnt Saffron next to mama and papa (Dragon's Breath and Saffron)

Silver Dragon (Charlie thinks this one may be mislabeled which I can see why because the peduncles are alot longer than SD that I have seen in pics, but it looks like it should have flowers in two weeks, so we will know for sure.  But at anyrate this plant looks like it is very prolific!) Rocket's Red Glare (this one isnt new) and Black Cherry :)

Thanks Charlie for such great plants! :D

-Chris

I still don't have my other 6" plants ...... ???

I only got some like it hot so far and my 4" pots plants

Still waiting for BC , SD , and snowstorm

let me take pics of the ones I do have brb

LOL

If it makes you feel better Kerry, BC has a few tiny buds, so it will probably not bloom until late June/ early July.  So that is one less CV you have to pull your hair out waiting for the first blooms :P I cant wait to see your snowstorm :D 

HAHA sad thing about me is I am already waiting to buy more  :P

Charlie when is the next restocking  ;D

Yes I second that.  I check the store every day!  hehe

Nice photos, Chris! It will be fun to see Burnt Saffron blooming next to Black Dragon and Saffron. Burnt Saffron has improved since the first seedling blooms - better form and fantastic color this spring. I grafted a few but it has been rooting better this year, too, so I'm hopeful it will be out there in more adequate supply next year.

Cindy puts Kerry's order in and I keep sending it back....but there is a good reason! Both Black Cherry and Snowstorm are growing nicely but haven't budded up yet and they are likely to do it faster in the gh than anywhere else. Still, if you want them anyway just drop me a private note and I'll send them. Otherwise I'll keep checking every week and send them with small buds started.

Restocking questions - soon as we can. It's been a crazy year, Cindy says I should have hired another guy. Maybe so, anyway 1000 plants are going overseas in the next couple of weeks and I'm scared to update before that is finished. I am certain there will be some good things coming, but I'm not sure what and when. A few more Creme de la Creme, some Foxy Lady, Miss Congeniality, and others in the next update. Cosmic Gold should debut. I better wait and see before I get in trouble here. :)

Jordan, you should have something nice coming today!

Charlie

Creme da le Creme! :D :D :D this is one that has eluded me since I first got into hibiscus!  I have many crosses planed with this one!

HAHAH me too Chris !  I think I am going to give up nightfire for Winter lights. I wanted P's purple so this CV should replace two plants hahahah

OHH Creme de la Creme!!!!  Looks like I'm going to be hovering in the store even more now...lol... sorry if I use all your bandwidth.  :P


I got them, Charlie!  They're lovely!  My boyfriend said about Confection Perfection, "It's so green and healthy that it looks fake!"

I have lots of new additions this spring.  Photos to come after the weekend!

LOL!  CDLC is one that I need to make room for the other is Vin Extraordinaire :D.  Though... it looks like I am going to have more room than I thought. Remember that freak snowstorm in two weeks ago?  The plants don't look so happy :(

Oh no Chris!  I am crossing my fingers for them.  How is your "cold tolerant" plant looking now after being caught in the snow?

Hi Jordan,

I am crossing fingers for them to pull through, its looking like the casualties for this year are Rosalind (doesn't look good at all), Wild dream :(, Black Dragon, Living Legend. 

Sunkissed blonde and Belle du Jour look almost naked but I do see some new growth. 

The seedling still lives!  It looks like its ready to start growing again :) 

Ouch, I'm sorry Chris.  :(  It's sad to lose plants, and a tragedy when it's a rare cultivar.  Maybe there will be more Wild Dream-s available in the next restocking.  I kinda hope so... heh

Yeah, poor wild dream, it never did very well for me.  It bloomed a few times, but never got a full bush.  I also had alot of trouble getting my Heaven's Scent to branch.  I just pruned it, so here is for hoping :D

I think that with these slower growing CV's I might just get those 6' pots, since they are already well branched.  I might be a bit impatient :)

Charlie, so CDLC is coming soon, how are those Vin Extraordinaire you just grafted looking? 

:)

My new plants!  Long time coming in more ways than one!  (but again, can they ever REALLY come quickly enough?)  A star denotes replacements for those lost.  :(

Photo 1 plants are all new this year.  from left:  Voodoo Magic*, Creole Lady*, Night Runner*, Tahitian Princess, Stormy Rainbow, Silver Memories*

Photo 2 plants... some are new some have been around.  From left:
Chariots of Fire, Black Dragon (yay, still quite happy at my house thankfully), mystery cv, Confection Perfection (yay again), Sunkissed Blonde, Acapulco Gold

Photo 3 plants... got these about a month and a half ago as 4"ers.  They are on my shade porch that faces east and get sun until about 11 am.  You can already see the sun moving from left to right.  From left:  Sleeping Beauty, Burnt Saffron (growing like CRAZY), Illuminati, Splash!  (I just noticed the cat in the window too, lol, that is Slick)

Photo 4... no new plants here but I thought I should post the rest of my collection.  From left:  Hot Pepper, mystery cv, Buttercup, Blue Ballerina, mystery cv, mystery cv, Space Oddity


Not pictured is Heavy Metal.  I also have an It's A Wonderful Life and Heartbreak Hotel coming!!!! :)

Jordan, isn't it nice to have room to space them out like that! Should cut down on your pest problems plus you can clearly see each one and what is going on with each one. If you can keep them well watered and fertilized I bet July will be the first of many months of blooms for you. Lots of great flowers in that group.

Charlie

Awesome Jordan!  I am jealous of all that space, and all those CVs!

I cant wait to see your Confection Perfection, Heavy metal looks great!  I am sure that you will have a bunch of pics come this summer :D

The space really does make all the difference.  Before I had nowhere to quarantine them, and boy does a garden hose make all the difference for leaf washing!  My plan is to build a greenhouse on the south side of the house at some point... probably not this year but hopefully I will only have to overwinter them one more time inside.  I already have a better plan for this coming winter, although space will be drastically decreased compared to outdoors.

I should have a Confection Perfection bloom within the next couple of weeks.  I've been starved for blooms all winter so I can't wait for the year to really get going!!!

A greenhouse is my dream, that will probably not be realized for several years :(  I figure with a greenhouse it doesnt matter where you live, you can enjoy flowers all year :)

Jordan, the hose washing outside idea is a good one. Once the plants are rooted well enough to hold in the soil what I do is tip the pot over on its side with the plant lying on and being supported by the ground. That exposes the undersides of the leaves and you can blast away at them with the hose. I usually turn the pot 1/4 turn and spray the leaves in each of the 4 positions so that all leaves are well washed, at least in theory.

I've been thinking the same thing, Chris, about having a home greenhouse wherever I live. We may stay here and do this til we drop but we've also talked about retiring to the mountains some day and that's where I would have my fantasy greenhouse. The main drawback is paying for the heat when it's really cold out but that can be partly handled by good greenhouse design and construction.

Charlie

Well with so many others posting pics of their new arrivals I simply can't resist getting in on the fun! Mine were probably part of the international batch that Charlie mentioned. They arrived a couple of days ago after a long trip and were in their boxes for a week. Look pretty good in my opinion considering. I have never seen another nursery do as good a job of packing and shipping their plants as Hidden Valley.

Ian

Very nice Ian!  Where are you? and what did you get :)

I can't remember what Ian got but he's in Canada and those black square pots are what we call 4 inch size. The goal with those this year was to deliver lots of side growth already happening so no precious summer growing time is used up with pruning to force branching. In most cases this was accomplished as these plants show.

Charlie

Well I think the rest of my babies are coming tomorrow LOL

There were 21 varieties in total mostly in the 4 inch size and there were some I passed up in January like Silver Dragon and Lady in Waiting that I regret now. Maybe next year!

Ian

Ian, you didn't miss out on the Silver Dragons because they turned out to be mistagged. I was so hoping that variety was finally propagating better but no such luck. Next year I'll graft them instead.

Charlie

I think I'll try to take a group shot like this one maybe once a month to see the change. Not much blooming today (can't blame them, it's been cold and overcast FOREVER now ::)), but lots of buds.

10-inch pots: Bridal Path, Chariots of Fire, Voodoo Magic, Fantasy Charm, Fallen Hero, Belle du Jour
8-inch pots: P's Purple, Belle du Jour, Voodoo Magic, Russ Estey, Dragon's Heart, Russ Estey
6-inch pots: Simple Pleasures, Arabian Princess, Acapulco Gold, Saffron, Cranberry Muffin

I was at a local nursery today and picked up a flash dancer....charlie could this be the same one???? I was surprised

Uli, that is such a pretty display of your hibiscus. You live near us, next county to the north for those who don't know southern CA, and our weather has been the same as yours. This past week the local news reported that we are breaking records for the coldest days San Diego has experienced in July since 1909. One weatherman said El Nino has given way to La Nina for the west coast, whatever that means. It sure is weird though to have seen maybe 4 hours of sun in almost a week. In a normal July San Diego has sun dawn to dusk every day and no rain until the following December.

Anyway, as soon as it warms up and the sun comes out your hibiscus should be primed to bloom and bloom. Our outdoor garden is the same way now - only a few flowers on big old plants that usually have lots of them.

Charlie

Hi Lynette, couldn't stay away from that Armstrongs, eh?   :)   It used to be more fun to go on treasure hunts at Armstrong's stores because I was selling Armstrong Growers (which supplies the stores with many of their plants) lots and lots of varieties in small numbers and you never knew what would turn up at one of their garden centers. Then they asked me to supply only a dozen varieties in large numbers for efficiency sake and I wasn't set up to do that nor did I really want to. They started carrying Dupont varieties when I did not come through and that is what you mostly find now, a dozen of those in large numbers. However, they still do have some that I supplied them like that Flash Dancer and occasionally you will find something rare and beautiful like that. They still want me to supply them and I might but doing wholesale of fewer varieties in large numbers is an entirely different type of operation. My focus is still on developing new and better varieties and exploring all the potentials that hibiscus have.

Charlie

Great display Ulli!

A bunch of my friends in Southern California have been complaining about where is summer?!  The weather is really bizarre all over the country, cold and raining in Southern California, Triple digits on the east coast, High nineties in the Pacific Northwest!  Here in Colorado it was the coldest week of July ever recorded, 55 and raining and dipping into the 40's at night.  Good thing its warming up, sunny and mid eighties this weekend.  

I think El Nino may play some role, bringing warmer than average water temps and therefore more tropical storms, but there is something more here.  A sense of foreboding as the weather spirals out of control, hopefully its not too late :(  

It wasn't armstrongs it was another nursery called thompsons...my husband and I were there to buy some rock for our backyard and I wandered to look at there hibiscus...you know being an addict..haha...and there was flash dance :D...oh well it made my day ..being when I saw it on hvh it was already snatced up...lynette...ps.... last year I went to armstongs...and there hibiscus did look terrible...all eaten up by something

Well, if it turns out to be a real Flash Dancer, that nursery probably bought it from Armstrong Growers (wholesale only, no public outlet except the stores they supply). They supply the Armstrong Garden Centers but also other independent nurseries in California and out of state buy from them, too. They have a big operation in Oceanside with close to 100 acres of all sorts of plants growing. It's also possible that some other grower acquired a Flash Dancer and managed to propagate it and is selling them but this is the first I have heard of it. Unless a hybridizer patents a new variety, other growers can also propagate and grow it for sale. 

I'm glad you found it - it's really pretty! One guy in TX bought one from us earlier this year and wrote to say it had become his favorite flower this summer.

Charlie

ya I had seen it on daves garden...and it named you as the hybrinizer...and I thought it was really pretty....so when I seen it on your store and then gone ..I was disapointed...so I was very excited to find it

Does the one you got have buds yet? Once it starts blooming you should get a lot of flowers!

Charlie

YES IT HAS QUITE A FEW...IT WAS A NICE FULL BUSH

Geronimo and Snowy Sky this time, damage wasnt too bad :P