red hibiscus

[Charlie]

That Velvet Illusion bush is very impressive, Erny. The ground must help but I think one of the other tricks with these hibiscus is keeping them alive long enough for them to fulfill their potential. That big old Living Legend of yours looks like it is there to stay!

When I first started posting photos of hibiscus on the internet in the mid 1990's I put out a request to Florida hibiscus enthusiasts for photos of their plants. I received quite a few in the mail but I have to tell you none of the plants looked anywhere near as full and nice as the ones we have seen posted here. I'm not sure if the varieties have gotten better or the care techniques are better - most likely both are true. I suspect that on your trip to Florida you will see a lot of big garden variety types of hibiscus but not too many of the exotics outside of the nurseries.

Just a caution - if you bring any plants back check them out for Florida pests very carefully. Snow scale and hibiscus gall midge and pink mealybug do not exist here in California but you could easily introduce them to your garden. Once there they are hard to get rid of and can do a lot of damage. Snow scale and midge have already spread from Florida to Louisiana and Texas on hibiscus plants. Still hoping California won't be next.

Charlie

[roadrunner]

Charlie apparently Arizona quarantine laws make it very difficult for me to order any hibiscus from that part of the country, essentially the whole gulf coast area.  Some of the online hibiscus vendors I've inquired with in Florida and Texas either won't ship plants to Arizona or the much higher shipping costs combined with the additional $65 or higher fee for the required phyto certificate for each order makes it financial unexceptable for me to even consider placing an order with these vendors.  Wow!, that was a mouthful.  This is probably a good thing since I'd hate to get any of those 3 gulf coast hibiscus pests introduced into my collection. I just don't think it's worth the risk. I dread the thought of any of them getting established in California, my sole source for exotic hibiscus, eg you guys.  Spider mites are more than enough to deal with, even with Kontos in my arsenal.

dave

[Ernest]

Thanks Charlie. Besides living in the right climate I also attribute much of my success with these plants to the fact that many of them were received in 2 gallon pots and therefore strong and healthy with good root systems that facilitated the transfer from pot to ground. I have also noticed  considerable increases in growth and flowering since I started using your Special Blend and Booster--also Super Nova and Fulmag.
I am not going to bring any plants back from Florida--just looking. Should I see something spectacular I may place an order in the future but only if it was something that you don't offer.
All the plants I have gotten from you have been so robust and healthy that it would be foolish to risk getting an inferior or diseased product from another source.

Erny

[Charlie]

DAve, that whole phytosanitary certificate (that says the plants are free of pests and diseases) approach is flawed. We have to do it for all international orders and some US shipments so I have a lot of experience with it. What happens is an inspector comes to the nursery that is shipping, inspects the plants the grower says are the ones going out, and then writes up the certificate and leaves. The grower has several days or weeks depending on where the plants are going to pack them up and ship them out. This means they could still become infested or the grower can substitute other non-inspected plants after the inspector leaves. It's more or less a worthless system that is expensive and does not achieve the intended result. The only system that would work would be for the plants to be carefully inspected at the receiving end and then rejected if they are infested with pests. That actually happens with most countries which makes the whole phyto certificate program redundant and kind of pointless.

Charlie

[Ernest]

Charlie, thanks for exposing the truth about that so-called phytosanitary certificate. Sounds like a government program and does about as much good as airport searches. It underscores an important basic principle: anything you buy should come from a reputable dealer who has a track record.

Erny

[davidwood]

Charlie, thanks for exposing the truth about that so-called phytosanitary certificate. Sounds like a government program and does about as much good as airport searches. It underscores an important basic principle: anything you buy should come from a reputable dealer who has a track record.

Erny

You have to be even more careful if you buy from out her{Asia},phytosanitary certificates are given free with some purchases in Thailand and cost 3 dollars for 10 in Vietnam. no inspector [I doubt they even exist here] ever goes near the plants.

[roadrunner]

Charlie, thanks for the clarification on the phyto certificates. Seems like another government program implemented for the purpose of collecting fees more than anything else. I wonder who is pocketing all those extra $$$ to be wasted on what later?

dave