Hidden Valley Hibiscus Forum

Happy November everyone!
Here is a beautiful Simple Pleasures and Tahitian Princess.

Beautiful blooms Kristen - glad to hear you're doing ok.  I hope things start returning to normal for you and your family soon...

Farmer D

some bush shots for those interested

1st photo: bottom left corner:Tahitian Royal Court, back left: Inner Compass, Vin Electrique (tall & back corner), Climax (in front of VE), Tahitian Princess & Daisy Mae rt corner

4th photo: lft to rt: Daisy Mae, Cindy's Heart & Tahitian Lavender Mist (one mass now), Summer Fun & Tahitian Lavender Pastel & Living Legend (one mass now), Scintillating (behind LL bloom) and Tahitian Pretty Boy for right

5th photo: Flirtatious behind plumeria leaves, Ingenue, The Path, Some Like It Hot (big bush in corner), Tahitian Royal Court next to The Path

Kristen, your Simple Pleasures is outstanding.

Darren, your bushes look great.

  

First bloom seedling:  Infinity x Bluebook second seedling.  This seedling has been growing well with good vigor and is really well budded bloom is 5 inches.  Dark dark colors on this one, hopefully clones will grow well too!  

Here are some later in the day photos of the new seedling, Arabian Princess and another seedling I like with pastel colors.   You can really see how dark the color is in contrast to the other CVs.

Chris, your Nightcrawler is fantastic!! My congratulations!!  :)

John thank you for the compliment.  I feel like half of my bushes are close to where they should be and the rest have some significant growing to do to get closer to their potential.  I knew I would be really hampering both bloom and bush results for this growing season once I replanted them all but in the long run should be a nice payoff (as long as there are no freezes this winter).

Chris another dark killer bloom!  I bet they would look equally as good and proper in other parts of the world where it gets cold and dark during winter, say the Ukraine! :)

Here are four shots of Acapulco Gold - 5 counting John's pretty bloom for today that show how fun this cv is as each bloom tends to be different.  I love it when the blooms are weather sensitive, everyday something to look forward to...definitely shifting back to a more yellow look as the temps continue to cool and daylight shortens...

Farmer D

Here are some more bush shots.  All these bushes are around 6 ft tall currently (including VD plant now).  What I wanted to show is some of the issues I have been seeing with my most mature and hardy bushes.  My fault as I continue to learn the new parameters of what these exotic hibiscus need now that I have proper soil and lots of room for root growth.

This planter faces towards the south and has a brick wall behind it so it gets super hot during summer.  I severely under watered it due to last year's experience with the horrible clay soil prison holes that let me get away with very little water due to the clay's ability to hold water without letting the roots breath at all.  

As a result this year I have seen this bushes lose some of their leafing down low and in the middle.  Chariots of Fire shows this best, and on the side of Rainbow Sherbet you can see how much leafing it has slowly lost over this year too.  Flickering Flame was also looking a little skimpy but thanks to swiveling a sprinkler head towards it for the last couple of months it has exploded in growth to the point that you can hardly see Bridal Path behind it anymore.

So what I've learned in the outdoors is that with the proper soil that lets the roots breath and drains well once these plants get going and are happy they like lots of water and often.  Totally the opposite of last year.  Now the trick is to see if during winter will they at some point shut down and stop wanting water like the last two years or with the new soil will they continue to want to be watered?

I have also noticed that how they grow is quite different too - probably a bit closer to how they might grow in a greenhouse.  The new leafing tends to be a lot softer and much bigger than what I've been seeing in the past.  And overall the size of leaves I now have on almost all of my plants is much bigger than before with many plants with leaves as big as my spread out hand.  Even when they are not blooming these plants are attractive just with the bush.  Green paradise!  I added a couple of pics from before so you can see what happens when the rootballs have maxed out the small holes I originally dug for them along with proper watering - blooms galore.

Oh yeah, one other thing I am hypothesizing is that I will see a lot less blooms for a while as my plants continue to grow in size as their root systems increase in size for a while.  Once they max out their growing places I bet they will shift their energy from growing to reproduction (flowering).  You can see from my bush shots the past few days not a lot of blooms anymore which has been the theme for a while now.  I know Chris had mentioned flush bloomers, but I'm not seeing a whole lot in the way of growing and prolific blooming at the same time here.  Temps have been pretty good so not sure if any other factors are involved here.

Farmer D

John, that's a wonderful photo of AG.
Chris, fantastic seedlings. That Infinity cross has really darkened up since the one you showed earlier.
Darren, I'm really liking that Rodeo Drive. I'm going to have to see if I can free up some more planting space.
Cooler nighttime temps here are starting to affect some blooms. Some from today:
Night Runner
Silver Dragon
Valentine's Day
Burnt Saffron
Daisy Mae
Magic Crystal

Erny

A few more:
Summer Shore
Heartbreak Hotel
Blue Ballerina
Angel's Wings
Louise Bennett
Victoria's Touch

Chris!!!!  Nightcrawler is so beautiful! 
Beautiful blooms everyone!

Thank you everyone!  
Darren,  I think that this one would be dark for people in warmer climates as well.  My grow area stays in the 60-75 degree range which is not really cool growing.  When I lived in Seattle, my apt got really cool in the winter (it even froze one night)  so I was able to get some awesome colors on Raindrop and My Blue Heaven.  

I just snapped a picture of this seedling at 5:00 pm and the coloration is still really saturated.  Could it be a blue seedling that has minimal fading?!  This one needs to be grown in different climates to be sure, but this first bloom sure feels promising :P  

This is my second Rodeo Drive plant as last year's got fried on my porch when out of town last Oct.  Came home to it full of spider mites and deteriorating fast.  Plus back then I was using the wrong type of soil so when I watered it just made it worse until deceased.

I've had this one since April so I have been able to observe that it grows rather nicely, so far a little bit of a sprawly grower but I did replant it to another spot and it didn't even flinch so that was impressive.  The blooms vary a lot with the form kind of all over the place but then again it is a young plant so that might sort itself out as it matures.  Likes to bloom a lot, what I really like is it totally has the Rainbow Christie eye and when the form is good like today's it's a pretty amazing look.

On the HVH online store page the icon for multi colored blooms is RD with quite the red look.

I wonder if Charlie has any plans on ever selling this one again - I haven't seen it in the store for 2 years now.

Farmer D

Farmer D, great idea  ;D
I like this flower enormously and hope to get it one day....

I'm ready...  :D

Darren, I was amazed at how much water it takes to keep the ones I have planted in the ground thriving. During the heat of summer I had to go out and water them every two hours. Next year I think I will try using a soaker hose.

I've been using the hvh water soluble fertilizer its such a great producing my flowers use to be really easy to tear but now there strong an more lush green branches growing on my hibiscus spin the bottle here's photo before an now flower first photo before fertilizer

John I have mentioned before but I find getting the watering right my biggest challenge.
Maybe Cris would like to comment but I seemed to have discovered something a bit strange, its about 20 to 30f cooler now for me here than a few months ago [about 80f now] and my cv's are now drinking far more water, a bit the opposite of what you would expect. Got me thinking that perhaps when its to hot they have a mechanism for shutting down and don't drink or need as much water as you think, it certainly confuses me.

The other thing I have found which I think is interesting and I think Tropical and the tropics has a bit to do with it is the sunshine and rain, I think most people take it has a given rule that you don't water or get the leaves wet when its sunny, well here in Vietnam that's not possible, you can get very heavy rain and then baking hot sunshine within  a few minuets [typical tropical conditions] and some time even at the same time. You would expect these conditions to cause a problem to the leaves but it doesn't, truth be told they actually seem to like it and I have never seen burnt leaves because of it.
Not sure I would ever risk watering in the sunshine as the water out the tap is not good but pure rain interestingly dosent seem to cause a problem.

Maybe John with your water being better rather than drowning the plant every few hours you could experiment with giving the leaves a spray to perk them up, up to you of course but I am now so frightened of overwatering I would be giving it a try.

David I'll have some feedback a little bit later with what you have posted - ran out of time right now...

Farmer D

Busy this morning rearanging the garden to make space for Bridal Path, not only is it tall [6 feet] its big all around at at least 16 feet sqauare. Melon Melangi not so big but taller is now giving me a bit more privacy from the new house. I think it looks quite nice.

David, all that you suggest in your last post is correct, and fits with what horticultural science has to say. You're getting a feel for growing in your conditions, nice job!

Charlie

Rodeo Drive sort of slipped through the cracks between 500 or so cultivars and now I have only 1 or 2 smallish plants of it left. Once we get it back up to about 6 plants that will serve as stock for making more we will start offering it again. We've got a few others in that situation, like Quantum Leap, that I hope will be back again in a year or so.

Charlie

David, the rain is similar here. Torrential downpours followed by sunshine. Sometimes it even rains with the sun still out. Never experienced any leaf damage. The grassy area around my plants in the ground absorb a lot of the water. That is the main reason probably for the heavy water need.

Rainbow Sherbert and a 2nd day Hot Southern Nights

Hi Everyone
Today I have a group picture & in it I have a seedling that bloomed for the first time . It looks almost like heavy metal , HM is the one on the left & my seedling is the one on the right .

here is some pictures of my other seedling it's 8 1/2 inches across pretty big

John and David, I have had the same experience--I frequently spray the plants in bright sunshine and haven't seen any problems.
Mike, congratulations on those two beautiful seedlings.
Tahitian Princess, Acapulco Gold, Hollywood Starlet, and Sizzle.

Erny

I'm having a hard time telling my Saffron and Electric Orange apart. The first photo is Saffron in shade followed by Electric Orange in sun and shade. Also Hot Pepper, Georgia's Pearl, and Thanksgiving (second day).

Looking good, Ernie! On average, Saffron is an 8 inch b loom while Electric Orange is 6 inches. Saffron is always solid orange with a white eye while Electric Orange will get yellow spots along the edge during hotter months. During cooler times Saffron might shrink in size and both would be solid orange with no spots, sort of like now, I guess.

Charlie

For those who are wondering about the quality of bushes these are some of the better ones from those I planted in the ground in mid-summer. I don't know whether good bushes in the ground will correlate with those grown in pots but it seems like there should be some relationship. The first photo is Silver Dragon, then two views of Hollywood Starlet, Sizzle, and Prosperity.

Erny

A few more bushes. Electric Orange may be one of the best. This one was planted last fall and is now about 6' tall with excellent vertical growth and lots of symmetrical branching. Inner Compass came in a 6" pot and was planted in July; now is about 5' tall with three exceptionally stout verticals and lots of branching and flower production. Delta Dawn was a gift (thanks Chris) as a small plant about 4" tall. It was planted in July an is now about 3' tall with a nice growth pattern.

Hi Ernie
The bottom seedling the red one was Victoria's Touch X Going Steady . the one that looks like heavy metal is unknown .

Charlie, I had the impression that the blooms on my Saffron and Electric Orange were the same size. So I just went out and measured them and , as usual , you are right on. The Saffron blooms on two different bushes both measured 8 1/4" while the EO was an even 6". The EO bush may be better but I don't think it is legitimate to make a direct comparison because the EO has been in the ground about 9 months longer and is in a different microenvironment from the Saffrons. The Saffrons are out where they get pretty much full day sun exposure while the EO is open to the east and thus gets a lot of morning sun but is almost completely shaded from the west by a tangerine tree and my 7' Sun Shower bush.

Thanks Mike. It's good to know that Victoria's Touch will set seed as it is an outstanding bloom.

John, in reading your description of your hot weather watering problems it occurred to me that a drip system might be a big help. I seem to remember you once saying that you kept the plants in their pots when they went into the ground so as to more easily remove them when the weather turned. If that's the case then a drip system could automatically deliver as much water as needed right into the pot several times a day. I use a Dig brand Hose Thread Watering Timer on all my drip systems. It goes right onto any hose bib and can be programmed to turn on for whatever duration you desire four times per day. They are really easy to set up and program. It would be easy to remove when it comes time to move the plants and the set-up could be left dormant but remained connected until needed in the spring.

Treating Cosmic Gold to a day in the shade for putting on a nice show today, cant believe its November 5th {Bonfire Night in England} and still scortching hot outside.

Erny, thanks for the tip on the drip system.
David, your Cosmic Gold is awesome.

John your Burnt Saffron looks great!  I like the cooler weather blooms on that one alot. 

David, Cosmic Gold is looking great! 

Two from me.  Seedling "Nightcrawler" flowering again, tons of buds on that one.

Wallflower (I think, I cant find the tag) first bloom on this one.

John, that's a great set of photos. I agree with Chris--really like the look of that Burnt Saffron.
Chris, nice consistent color on that dark seedling. The second one sure has an interesting mix of colors.
Temps in the high 80s here today. Got my second bloom on Pepper Spray and it's a lot better than the first. Shading it really dramatizes it as well.Also Palm Springs, Ruby Tuesday, Sizzle on day 2, and Hollywood Starlet on day 2.

Erny

A few more:
Rose Quartz
Gentle On My Mind
Summer Shore--day 2--this one is turning into a prolific bloomer
Blue Ballerina
Eye of Kali--my nominee for best hibiscus eye
Living Legend

Thanks Erny!  I love this seedling alot, I really wanted Dark Angel and this seedling looks like it is just as dark, so I am happy with it.  I am really enjoying your ruby tuesday as well!  

Another seedling flower today, Muffin Man x Unknown.  I know the parent is either Raindrop or Heaven's Scent, but the flower on this one resembles Muffin man, so it is hard to draw any conclusion on the pollen parent.  Form is a bit wonky, but the color is nice, I hope the future blooms are nicer.  

Mike your new seedling is just fantastic!  Another real knock out for sure!

David, John & Erny: I think you're right on when it comes to the plants starting to shut down when it gets too hot.  I've noticed this year that when I placed my potted plants in the shade while out of town for several weeks and they got way more water from my sprinklers than I would normally give them while on the porch - that whole time they were in the shade they just thrived - sprouting new leaves and branches everywhere and looking a whole lot better than on the hot porch which gets that intense afternoon sun.  I thought it might be too much water but I'm thinking of it as a whole system for the plant.  Once it has more optimal conditions their appetite opens up and they can really get into that super growth mode and flourish like we know they are capable of.  Also being they are young plants maybe they need more gentle conditions earlier on until they can get really established and more hardy.

So the trick is finding that optimal zone and then getting them into that super growth mode.  I've just moved back all those potted plants to the porch last week so now I want to see if they drop out of that optimal growth mode or was it enough time for them to keep on going in this manner.  The weather should be a little bit more mild now so that should help I hope.

Today was a good test as the temp here hit 93F and was very dry.  On the good side the sun angle is getting pretty low now so only half the porch was really hot.

Farmer D

I'm sorry but why are we losing an hour of daylight?  It is 5:15 and dark outside, I don't see the point of day light savings - I know this was all started for the farmers way back when but c'mon it's 2012...

Anyways yesterday I moved Meteor Shower about a foot over to make room for another plant and again I was shocked to see that the soil way deep down was bone dry in spots.  This is my south planter that faces to the north and during winter the soil doesn't ever see the sun.  So I am really surprised at this planter also having dryness issues.  Wow changing out the soil has made such a difference -much beyond what I thought possible.  Even this planter seems to be under watered though not nearly to the extent as my north planter where Bonnie Lass was located.

Again I'll say that I take back what I said earlier about BL not being heat tolerant.  Once I saw how bone dry the soil was all around her and way deep down it is a testament to her hardiness to have survived those conditions.  I hope I did not scare anyone off on getting BL - it is a fantastic cv for sure.

So I know it can be risky removing my hibs and then replanting them but out of over 80 I lost only 2 so that is pretty good results for me.  Seeing what is going on with the rootballs and the soil has been priceless.  David you mentioned that you saw no feeder roots and just some larger tuber roots on your plant(s) recently.  When I first removed my plants this past spring from the clay soil prison holes that is how they looked.  Really no rootball, just several large tuber roots leading far away from the plant in search of more favorable conditions. 

When I pulled out Meteor Shower a totally different story.  A huge rootball full of dozens of feeder roots along with several larger tuber roots that looked like they were searching out some more wetter conditions as again the soil was hit and miss wet and dry in my south planter.  You know I wonder if I mistook browned tipped leaves as fert burn from last year when it was dehydration.  Reason I am thinking this is because this year I am again seeing those brown tipped leaves and I have been very timid with using any fertilizer beyond just the HVH special blend, supernova and quelant-k (part of the time). 

I remember last year when it rained all my plants seemed to perk up which at the time surprised me since I thought it would be too much water and they would yellow and get root rot.  So maybe I had it backwards.  Now I am watering quite heavily still and hardly any yellow leaves to speak of so I think I'm getting closer to figuring out things with my new soil.  I will be focused on COF and RS which were next to Bonnie Lass to see with heavy watering if they don't start improving a lot soon.  Of course the weather can complicate things too as today 93F but by Fri 63F and chance of rain. 

Even with the mild fall so far the blooms have definitely started looking more winter like and are now lasting 3+ days which is surprising.  I guess it is the night time temps being the influencer here but nothing too cold yet with the lowest temps in the high 50s F.

Farmer D

Chris, your seedling blooms are awesome.

Here is a 2nd day Burnt Saffron. Really holds its color.

John, Burnt Saffron is looking great. that is one of my top favorite CVs

Day two Nightcrawler, gets an alternating grey and blue color on day two.  It is more silvery looking than a dull grey in person.

Nightcrawler's Sibling Magneto, really unusual color and metallic cast to the bloom.  

Heart of my Heart, a dark red mini that has perfect form and great color.  

John I have really enjoyed seeing your spread of blooms.  I totally agree that both HSN & Burnt Saffron have been at their best lately.  Awesome!

Erny that Pepper Spray is sure a surprise - quite the dramatic look for sure.

Chris your seedlings are coming along so nicely - lots of metallic colors, very cool!

A fun shot of Valentines Day looking through to Living Legend, Scintillating, T Pretty Boy and Confection Perfection bushes in the background

Farmer D

With the cooler temps now starting to happen aphids would be the last thing you think you'd see but they are here in decent numbers.  These are drone aphids that the ants have been placing all over my buds and baby leaves.  I guess the ants are getting more desperate as their summer food sources are disappearing.  Hello Safari!

Good news is I am also seeing quite a few ladybugs and their juveniles in the garden.  Got one on the tip of Summer Fun right before hiding on the backside.

I also think this is the best time of year for Palm Springs - an incredible blend of colors (same happens in spring too).

Farmer D

An amazing bloom from Meteor Shower today - this one has some brown in it.  The plant is doing great after moving so no worries there.

Also got my first Deep Waters bloom in many months - the plant really looks much better as I keep increasing the amount of water it gets.

Farmer D

Nice colors on our Mr. BoJangles. Some nights here have been in the 30-40's while the plants stay comfy around 55 in the greenhouse.

No pic of Hollywood Starlett but here is a link to the time lapse of her blooming...she takes her sweet time over 2 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF9XbL3G8Mk&feature=g-upl

Todays decorations:

The Right Stuff: Really pretty form and color, even if it is a mini.  Interesting parents too Wallflower x Ren Blue.

Thunderegg:  Always looking awesome!  Lasts three days too :)

It's a wonderful life:  I can really see the influence of 5th Dimension with the growth habit, but the blooms are so very nice.  Trying to use this one as a blank palate as Charlie suggested, she got some "Nightcrawler" pollen today :)

LBJ - a lot of fun watching your time lapse video.  This time of year the blooms are slower to open and tend to open at strange times of the day too but they do last for days on end.

If you don't mind me asking I'm curious as to what camera and editing software you use.  I have a bunch of time lapse videos as well which I had posted on FB but some got taken down due to copyright violations with the music I put on with it.  Maybe I should put them on youtube and place credits for the music to be sure.  Anyways the result is FB will not allow me to download videos any more :'(.

Speaking of slow openers I will have 9 blooms on Black Dream but they are all still not open yet so will have shots at end of day to take...

Farmer D

Got another first time bloomer today - Legendary Pleasures.  This one has been a challenge until recently as it seems to have finally accepted it's location and has quickly produced a handful of buds.  The bush is still quite small and leggy so it needs some time to show us what it can do.

Farmer D

Chris your blooms are looking nice - Thunder Egg is just so different.  Who would have thought it would look like that.  Very enjoyable!

Farmer D

Gorgeous looking blooms there Farmer D.  I keep seeing "Nightcrawler" pics and references, is it available for purchase?  Thanks for the info on the slow blooming this time of year, thought I had a lazy girl there.  I have been using the standard Movie Maker for Windows 7.  The GoPro sequentially numbers the shots so adding them to Movie Maker is cake, Ctrl-A to select all the photos then change the duration from the default 7 seconds to .2 or what ever you like.  I always choose the "free" music suggested by Movie Maker.  Not pushing Microsoft products, it was the easiest (and cheapest-free).

Hi LBJ,

Sorry for the confusion, Nightcrawler is a seedling of mine that I am watching.  It is one out of about 100 seedlings I have that is interesting enough to show.  It would be a few years until this one gets out there, but the first blooms of this seedling have been special to look at for sure. 

Darren I agree, thunder egg is sure different, but definitely in a good way.  Such an eye catching bloom on a very special looking plant. 

Thanks for the quick reply and info for the time lapse.  I also have been using the GoPro which I plug into my mac and use iMovie to edit.  I found that the 30 second interval is pretty good as it can take a 6 hour opening sequence and reduce it to around 2-3 minutes.  I think I will try it on the 1 minute duration to get it down to around a minute as people's attention spans aren't always generally too patient.  I did have to buy a small program that lets me crop all the individual photos at one time to the same size as I found that sometimes I just can't get the tripod close enough to the bloom when in the garden.

My neighbors think I'm nuts now that I shoot videos aside from photos....

Farmer D

I haven't asked my neighbors what they think, but I am sure I know, lol.  I understand about not getting close enough.  Who else has a tripod in their greenhouse?  Still curious about the Nightcrawler, those dark colors are awesome looking...

Hey Darren,

Check out the Misfire you sent me a few months ago.  Looks like it is growing strong and starting to pump out some very pretty blooms. :)

E

Wonderful job on the Nightcrawler.  So it does take a lot of seeds before you get the amazing ones to cultivate from I guess.

Lots of blooms today:
Palm Springs
Silver Dragon
My Blue Heaven
Sparkling Waters
City Slicker
California Beauty

LBJ, I posted the ultimate "low-tech" time lapse of Hollywood Starlet on 11-4 and then day 2 on 11-5.  Old Spice taken in early morning just after opening and then later in the day.
Also Angel's Wings and Electric Orange.

Some more:
Tahitian Princess
Acapulco Gold
Cindy's Heart

Heartbreak Hotel
Saffron
Georgia's Pearl
Flickering Flame

Erny I just love that Palm Springs - it is amazing how are blooms are looking identical for the most part during the course of the year.  It really helps me gauge if what I am doing is working or not.

I forgot to post a pic of Sun Showers today - every time I see your monster bush I keep rethinking where to plant mine.  My neighbor has some really ugly cactus that borders my front planter so this might be the perfect place to plant it.  It is a really sunny spot with afternoon sun but after seeing yours' in person I know it can tolerate a lot including that spot.  Did you prune it a lot in the beginning and/or stake it?  Mine is rather sprawly but it is still a youngin.

Chris great to see Misfire doing well.  I'm sure you're having a lot of fun cross pollinating the blooms with all sorts of cvs.  That is a parent of so many many many children already...even though that one was grafted it just seems like a really strong one.

Farmer D

Darren, I really like Palm Springs as well. Of course I had to get it after looking at so many pictures of yours. I would also reiterate something you have pointed out before--it also forms a great bush with really distinctive foliage.
My large Sun Shower hasn't required much attention. I never had to stake it and the only pruning I have done was taking off some of the lower branches last year.

Erny I'll have to post some pics of my PS bush.  It is around 6 feet tall now and has branched out very nicely (planted 04/2010 as a 4").  As with most of my other plants I think I was under watering her for most of the summer so looking a bit sparse still but once it gets lush it is going to be out of this world.  Love those jagged edged, pointy leaves - very distinctive.  My Bon Temps has leaves similar to this but with a very dark green hue which I like enormously.

Farmer D

Great day for bush shots as it is cloudy with some very light rain.

Farmer D

Mailbox planter: Prosperity, Simple Pleasures, Confection Perfection, Tahitian Pretty Boy, Scintillating and Living Legend

Driveway planter: Rodeo Drive, Surf City, Crystal Pink, Dynamo, Confection Perfection(2)

Gate Planter: Some Like It Hot (big one), front left Ingenue, to it's rt The Path, next to Path

Farmer D

North Planter: Flickering Flame, Chariots of Fire, Rainbow Sherbet, Scarlet Beauty Flirtatious and Ingenue

Farmer D

to the right of Valentines Day is Rise and Shine

Farmer D

gate planter: lft to rt: Inner Compass, Vin Electrique (back corner), Climax in front of VE, Tahitian Princess

Farmer D

Darren, you're right about today's weather conditions. The hits seem to like the gentle rain. Your bushes are looking great.
Vin Beaujolais
Slapstick
Cindy's heart
Flickering Flame
Voodoo Magic
Donna Lynn

Caught Saffron and Summer Shore just after opening. Also Lovely Lil, Herm Geller, Sizzle, and Electric Orange.

African Princess
High Voltage
Living Legend

A few of the small bushes planted in late summer showing multiple blooms today:
Silver Dragon
Daisy Mae
Blue Ballerina
City Slicker

Erny I just love your Vin B!  I hope mine can look like your's at some point.  Also the same with your Slapstick - such strong colors.  Mine really struggled from the beginning after a week of acclimating once received it was on my hot porch all summer and it just slowly went downhill.  Going out of town for several weeks was what it needed as I put it along with all other porch plants in my shady backyard planter with lots of water and they loved it.  It has been steadily improving since and now that the weather has finally cooled down the porch should be good for it until next summer.

Legendary Pleasures looking very pretty on day 2 - from red to magenta now

Farmer D

I'm really liking Crystal Pink a lot!

Farmer D

I think I finally got my first really nice Sizzle bloom today.  The form is flawless!

Farmer D

Darren & Ernie - Lots & lots of beautiful blooms still happening outdoors in SoCal, I see  :o

Surprisingly, I have LOTS of happy indoor hibs here in SE Mich...

Adagio
Byron Metts
Cosmic Gold Twins
Easter Glow
El Capitolio

Some more...

Flirtatious (first bloom)
Gwen Mary Triplets
H. Arnottianus
H. Kokio
H. Liliiflorus (in the "black" lights)
H. Rosa-sinensis Twins
(only 2 of my species hibs not currently in bloom)

and the rest...

Heart of My Heart
High Heaven
Magic Moments
Pinot Noir
Ruby Tuesday
Space Oddessy

Deb  ;)

Deb, your indoor hits are looking great. I especially like El Capitolio, Heart of My Heart, and Space Oddity but all have vibrant colors.

Erny

Deb great blooms - I totally agree with Erny.  Your Space Oddity is special.

Erny I'm curious when it rains like today do you have to turn off your drip lines so they don't get over watered?  I saw that you had extra valves for the front so I am wondering if you have to turn off multiple valves (multiple timers) when it rains?

Farmer D

Great pics everyone.

Wow John!! Your CH triplets are looking mighty fierce.  Impressive for mid November - how late can you keep your plants outside normally?

Lots of fine second day blooms today...and my first Flirtatious bloom too - love the orangy highlights, just a really fun bloom with tons of character.

Farmer D

Up to 13 blooms on Black Dream - I'd swear it does better in cooler weather...by the way the bush on this cv is growing almost as wide as it is tall (like Valentines Day) which by the way is getting close to 6 feet now.  Incredible brancher...

Farmer D

Darren, when the rain is light I don't worry about too much water. I've prepped the soil so that the drainage is good enough to handle moderate excess. If the rain is heavy I will turn off the valves for a day or so. I have five separate drip systems so I just turn one valve for each.

Hi Everyone from South Carolina!

I have been very busy with school....but needed to take a moment to look at all the blooms.  My plants are now indoors and Blue Ballerina has buds....hope it follows through and opens.

Darren...your yard is beautiful!

Erny.....love your Summer Shore....I bought one of those....and I hope it is as pretty as your plant.

Everyone else......really enjoying seeing all the pictures of the flowers you are posting!

Happy Fall!

Vicki

Darren, I will have to move my plants inside anytime now. Usually December 1st is the latest I can go.

Deb, your "in the house" hibiscus garden is sure putting out great looking flowers. Also nice to see that Flirtatious is correctly tagged for you and Darren.

Charlie

Deb,  the hibiscus house looks really great haha :) 

Darren and Erny, always enjoy those in the ground shots! 

I have two standout blooms today:

Braveheart:  Fantastic bloomer, well branched prolific bush.  The colors are unique and pretty, I recommend this one for anyone who likes more unusual colors and flowers almost everyday!

Seedling "Nightcrawler"  it is show a more grey look today that I think looks really nice.  This seedling is prolific so far, has bloomed three times this week and only has one branch!    A keeper for sure, now I just have to wait for the wood to harden up...

Today I have a seedling that has been blooming and setting seed well, on a really really nice looking seedling plant.  Pretty white, pink and lavender blooms reminding me of Sakura blossoms in the spring, hence the name.  :)

A nice Rainbow Sherbert on a cool fall day. Supposed to get down to the upper thirties tonight.

Great looking Rainbow Sherbet John!

A few shots today from the Basement:

Dark of Night

IAWL

Seedling (Heartbreak Hotel x Eku Morning Dew)  Crossing fingers the bloom gets bigger, the bush is really nice looking on this one.

Misfire: Thanks Darren for the plant!  The bloom sure is different looking

Group

Blue Ballerina is an incredible bloomer and is behaving just as Charlie described.  This plant came in a 4" pot in July, bumped up to a 6" pot after about 2 weeks, then went into the ground in late summer. It is now about 2 1/2 feet tall and opens about 5-8 blooms each day. This small plant currently has about 40 buds in various stages of development. Also pictured: Bright Horizon, and Night Runner.

Erny

Chris glad you're enjoying Misfire!  It's in good hands for sure...hey is that a lot of good looking pollen on Misfire I see there?

John that is pretty cold at night - just a couple of nights last winter we were in the high 30sF.  This past three nights it has been in the low 40'sF here so even though it is mid fall it definitely feels like winter for the hibs.  When it dips below 50F at night I almost always spray Supernova the next day to offset the cold effects.  Tough part is it usually takes a couple of weeks for the effects of things to show themselves on the hibiscus so even though they all look great now I won't know for sure for a little while...

Farmer D

Darren, Sure is some pollen on those pads, crossed to Green elf, hoping for a green colored seedling here :)

Nightcrawler: blooming in twos today, great dark blooms up here in the PNW.  Can't say much about the bush, seems to be a fast grower though.  Crossed to Thunderegg today. 

It is always interesting to see what winter colors blooms will take on once the weather changes.  A nice surprise today with Luck Be A Lady taking on a beautiful orange hued rim combined with an inner grey zone as they swirl around each other.  Very nice indeed - thank you Charlie for a fantastic creation with this one.

Farmer D

Farmer D

Farmer D

First blooms on Princess Ka'iulani and Titian Venus today. Both plants are still small (planted in September) and the flowers are only 3-4".
Also: California Beauty
        Summer Shore
        

Erny

Looks like the cooler weather is showing up in the color and size of your blooms Erny and Darren.

Only one bloom from me today, seedling "Magneto" 

Chris, your seedlings are fantastic. Put Magneto and Nightcrawler on my wish list.

Erny thanks for sharing the pic of Titian Venus.  That was not what I was expecting for it but this time of year the blooms are really starting to look so different with the cool temps.  I got mine as a tiny 4" early summer and it has been one heck of a solid grower.  The bush is full and beautiful so far with buds and that says a lot as it has been on my hot porch all summer and it never even flinched.

Another stunning SOT bloom - if you can get it before it starts to reflex it has an amazing deep orange color during the cooler months.  That with the dark grey makes for an outstanding color combination IMO.

Farmer D

Darren, your Sea of Tranquility is indeed stunning. I am expecting bigger and better blooms on Titian Venus.My experience with first blooms is that they are usually smaller and not their true colors.
Princess Ka'iulani looks better on day two.
Saffron
Summer Shore
African Princess
Palm Springs
Night Runner

Erny

A few more:

Bridal Path
Bright Horizon
Prosperity
Slapstick

Ruby Tuesday
Flickering Flame
Secret Heart

A couple of cold weather blooms. The lows have been in the upper thirties several mornings this week.

All very nice, Erny my Bridal Path is quite a bit different than yours, not just the colour, it has a more rounded flater look. Very stormy here at the moment and tried ages yesterday to get a photo of the fork lightning, failed miserably after about 100 goes and gave up, did capture the sky looking nice at 5am with a flash though. High Voltage looking nice in the storm.

Erny that is quite the awesome array of blooms.  All my favs lined up in a row - just tremendous!

John that Cindy's Heart in cold weather is just so saturated with color.  An absolute gem!

David I love both your Bridal Path and High Voltage blooms.  That HV plant looks like hibiscus gone bonsai - amazing to have such nice blooms on such a little plant!!!

Well at least this time of year the blooms are lasting a while - CP at day 4 still looking great!
Farmer D

Farmer D

David, love the storm photo of Shangri-La. We're definitely starting to see winter blooms with somewhat smaller flowers and reversion to plainer color patterns (mostly red).
I'm really pleased with Bright Hope. The colors remain vivid and well defined.
Also Funny Voodoo, Palm Springs, Silver Dragon, Burnt Saffron, and Slapstick.

Erny

Even though the weather has been a bit better than last year this time of year I swear my blooms are going the winter look much more quickly this year.  And I don't remember the bugs eating away at the blooms this much so early too.

Sorry about the bloom quality, makes me wonder what they will look like in a few months...

Farmer D

Darren, my blooms are "winterizing" just like yours.
Gentle On My Mind
Rocket's Red Glare
Blue Ballerina
Old Spice

Erny

Prosperity
Burnt Saffron
Daisy Mae
The Path
Flickering Flame

Last few:
Cindy's Heart
Inner Compass
Hot pepper
Eye of Kali
Rum Runner

Erny I took a look at my pics from last year this time and sure enough my blooms looked exactly the same (come on brain - I'm not that old to not remember correctly???).  Since the weather has been warmer this year for us especially Aug- Oct and this Nov has been better than last Nov I guess the weather is not much of a factor with the look and size of blooms.  I figured it would play a more prominent direct role in their appearance.  

So what other factors then become the main players?  I'm thinking night time lows temps and amount of day light...

I also spotted my first areas of potential branch tip rot on a couple of plants today.  I'll take a few pics and post.  Again this is surprising too as there has been few nights if any of cold, damp conditions.  And I've been careful to spray early in the day to avoid wet plants at night.  I guess it doesn't take much this time of year for these things to get going.   I think some branches experienced their growth tips dying off while I was away for several weeks in Oct and this might have created the opening needed for the fungus or pathogen to get in there.  Wow the learning continues...

Farmer D

Awesome Hot Pepper bloom today along with Vin Beaujolais

Farmer D

Farmer D

 Summer Shore, Winter Lights, and Silver Dragon.

Erny

First Spice Cake bloom. It was small due to the cold temps last week, but I love the colors.

John that is one cute bloom - hopefully warming up a little for your area for Tgiving...

Got a first time bloom today and I am very excited with what I see - Expect Miracles.  Big, excellent form and some very pretty colors though they are probably somewhat winterized colors which I am liking a lot.  Impressive start for a small baby plant!

Farmer D

Darren, Expect Miracles is outstanding.

Here is a 2nd day bloom of Spice Cake. The colors softened up a bit and now looks much closer to the pic on the description page.

Thank you John for the nice compliment - I am really excited about EM after that first bloom.  Spice Cake looks great on the second day - lots more personality coming out!  By the way thank you also for the info about how you watered your hibs every two hours during the worst summer heat you have in summer.  This is the kind of information that really helps me be alert to catching what my hibs need now that I've changed out the soil.  It is almost the opposite of how things were last year.  They seem to be fine with lots of water still even with the seasons changing big time.

Farmer D

Darren, I'm still watering mine 3 times a day even though it is only getting into the 70s everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Wishing you all a great day to hopefully relax and enjoy the day off.  No relaxing here - got to take care of those hibs!

John that is quite amazing that you are still watering your plants so much at this time of year.  It is good to hear as even though mine are planted in ground those that face south really seem to can't get enough water so far this season.

Hopefully today is an indication of things to come for the garden here...

Farmer D

Farmer D

Farmer D

Farmer D

Wow Darren, Black Dream loves to show off in the spring, winter and fall. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seedling blooms today :)

John, that Spice Cake sure looks good.
Darren, great shots as usual. I'm wondering if you have experienced the same thing I have this past week. It seems weird but almost all the blooms that usually last 1 or 2 days have been holding both their form and colors for 3-5 days. The pictures below are mostly 2 or 3 day shots taken yesterday but they all appear unchanged today on their 3rd, 4th, or 5th days.

Erny

More durable blooms:
Bright Hope
Silver Dragon
Cindy's Heart
Deep Waters
Creme de la Creme
Living Legend

Fresher blooms from yesterday:
Cindy's heart
Ruby Tuesday
Blue Ballerina
High Voltage
Luck Be A Lady
Donna Lynn

Last few:
Deep Waters
Creme de la Creme
Strawberry Fields Forever
A first bloom on one of Kerry's AT X Cyberspace crosses--really like this one.
Another of Kerry's AT X Cyberspace seedlings

Awesome blooms everyone!  :o

Here are some of my indoor jungle blooms from the past week...

Bienvenue
Cosmic Gold
Flirtatious
High Heaven
H. Kokio (orange)

and the rest...

Maui Masterpiece
Orange Truffle
Pinot Noir
Spring Showers

Happy Thanksgiving!
Deb  :D

Bright Hope still looking good on day 3.
Flickering Flame
Cindy's Heart quints
Valentine's Day

Magic Crystal
Double Date
Tahitian Taui
Burnt Saffron
Prosperity

Super nice High Heaven Deb, in fact when I first looked I hadn't scrolled the page down far enough and I thought wow!!! look at all them ruffles on High Voltage.

A much darker for me  Cranberry Muffin and a couple of Pineapple Sundae's.

I bought a new big plant pot [1 meter square and I bought 2] and am still in shock at the 40usd price, but it will hold 3 cv's in 1 gallon pots and growing in the middle of it is a new Plumeria to give them shade, at least that cost nothing as I took a cutting from a tree by the beach.

Erny I'm seeing the exact same thing here.  It seems like as soon as Nov rolled around my blooms got winterized and are lasting the same length as yours.  It seems like everything slows down to a third of the speed it is during summer.  I hope that is not the same for the growth...your Flickering Flame is outstanding.

Deb every time I see your Bienvenue I am blown away by those bright colors!

David your Pineapple Sundaes are amazing - those eye zones are so vibrant with those bright red rings around the eye.

All Thanksgiving treats for sure for me!

Farmer D

David, I agree with Darren--beautiful eyes on those Pineapple Sundaes. Don't feel too bad about the large pots. We would probably pay twice as much here for a beautiful large pot like that.

Erny

My blooms are lasting several days also this time of year.

David, what kind of material is that pot made of? Looks awesome.

Wow Fantastic everyone!

Erny Ruby Tuesday and Blue Ballerina are standouts for me :)

Deb, always enjoy seeing fellow indoor growers

Dave, looks like the weather is cooling off enough for you to start getting blooms

Dark of Night and Thunder Egg below.

John I am not really sure, I think they are a cast concrete, they are extremely heavy and it took 2 guys to carry them up here. I have quite a few now, all smaller of course and you can see they have been hand painted, no idea what the Chinese symbols stand for that are painted on there.

Farmer D

Some branch tip rot for anyone interested in what it looks like.  On this branch I never touched it - it just developed on it's own as the growth tips died down and must have kept on dying down.  Now I'll be watching to see if it spreads down further or if the plants will stop it on it's own.

Farmer D

Hi All from South Carolina!

I woke up this morning to my first bloom (so this is my first posting of a Charlie cv)! Blue Ballerina decided to show me all her glory.....a bloom I had been anticipating for weeks!  My plants have been indoors for about a month now and really seem to be loving the sunny bedroom they are occupying.  The first photo is Blue Ballerina and the second are the seedlings I found on my nursery bought hibiscus.

Happy Holidays!
Vicki

Cindy's Heart twins

Vicki, you will really like Blue Ballerina. Once it starts blooming, it never seems to stop. It has been the most prolific bloomer for me over the past several weeks. Noting your Clemson logo--tough loss to USC this weekend.
Also Bridal Path, California Beauty, Slapstick, Sizzle, and Bright Horizon.

Erny

All twins today. Cindy's Heart are second day blooms.

John, nice sets of twins today. Are they still in the ground?

Heavy Metal
Ruby Tuesday
Bright Horizon-day 2

Erny

Silver Dragon-day 4 or 5
Summer Shore
Golden Halo

Erny, those are still planted in the ground. The weather has been warm here this fall, so I haven't even moved my potted ones in yet.

Vikki congratulations on your first bloom.  That is a very exciting and big moment to enjoy.  Please find every excuse to keep walking by your pretty bloom.  I know I did when it finally happened - Bon Temps I believe for me.  I'm sure many more to come...

John I love your barrage of twins today - just sensational!

Erny all of your blooms are off the charts today - the quality of blooms you're getting seems to have improved lately.  I've noticed the same with mine as well...

Farmer D

Farmer D

Here is an entertaining shot of Black Dream pretending to be a bloom on my Tahitian Christmas plant that is in the pot.  BD is coming in horizontally from the left.

Farmer D

Yesterday was in the 80s and today it is in the 50's all day.

John it sounds like a cold front just went thru your area - did you get any of those thunderstorms last night.  They looked to be just north of Houston and with hail not good for the hibs...

Some pretty blooms today - SOT and Sizzle put out dazzlers along with a few others.  I'm still getting solid growth out of just about all of my plants still so good news there.  Supposed to on and off light rain for a week now so lets see what that does.  Again that 2-3 week lag in seeing the effects makes it tricky.  Right now everyone seems really happy so the weather must have been great 2 weeks ago.

Farmer D

more color...

Farmer D

Darren, that's the nicest Sea of Tranquility I've seen.
Heavy Metal still looking great on day 3.
Bright horizon still going strong on day 3 or 4.
Daisy Mae
Inner Compass twins.

Erny

Darren, the rain stayed to the north of us. We are officially back in drought conditions. Woke up to 36 this morning.

Erny, Tahitian Sophistication is a real beauty.

A few from today:
Ruby Tuesday
Hollywood Starlet
Cherry Glow
Arabian Princess
Summer Shore

Erny

Delta Dawn
Magic crystal--changing to winter colors
Flickering Flame
Silver Dragon--day 6
Daisy Mae
High Voltage

John I didn't know you had a Rosalind.  Very nice - how is the bush on that one?

Erny some more gentle rain for the hibs through Monday then 80s again?  If so I am really liking the fall weather so far this season.

Farmer D

David (Vietnam) I wanted to follow up with you on your question to me earlier this year regarding if spraying with Supernova is enough to provide sufficient water for my hibiscus.  At the time I saw that it was enough but since then I have observed two changes that have very much changed the water intake needs of my hibiscus. 

First is that once my plant's root systems adjusted to their new soil environments and then more importantly started to aggressively grow the water needed to keep the plants happy increased a lot.

Second factor is that we had a very long hot and humid stretch of weather from beginning of August all the way thru early October.  During this time I was blown away by how much water they wanted.  I think all along I kept underestimating how much water they needed as I was getting over the opposite experience with the clay soil prison holes they lived in previously.  It was really almost like they just couldn't get enough and they very easily started to show signs of distress like brown tipped leaves, leaves the would start to curl up and diminished blooming. 

I wonder how much more they all could have grown this summer if I knew how much water they were needing at the time.  Now I know for next summer - in the mean time I am curious to see what their water needs will be as winter approaches.

Farmer D

Darren, Rosalind is a medium size bush. Branches out nicely on its own. I believe it is a grafted variety.

Burnt Saffron

Really fine photos from everyone!

Rosalind was one of the best bushes we grew in 90's and we based a lot of our earlier hybridizing on Rosalind in order to improve bushes overall. It was imported from Australia by HVH and was one of very few varieties that are still around from that time. Unfortunately, it is not a good rooter so we moved on to other varieties as time passed but it is still a very nice variety to grow as it blooms well and stands up to sun and heat well. We grafted a couple of dozen of them a year or two ago and will do so again one of these days.

Here are a few bush photos of Rosalind:

1. 15 gallon pot with 8 inch pot next to it for size reference.
2. Bush in the ground in our Fallbrook garden.
3. Blooming 8 inch pot of Rosalind.

Charlie

Two days of light rain give us clean looking plants and wet blooms. Bright Hope has become one of my favorites. With its vivid colors and sharply demarcated margins it is a real eye catcher. Also Secret Heart, Palm Springs, Cherry Blue, Acapulco Gold, and Climax with a dramatic halo.

Erny

Cindy;s Heart
Prosperity
Heavy Metal
Wild Grape--day 2
Mr. Ace
Magic Moments