May Flower Photos of the Day

[Mike]

  Hi everyone the temperature here is terrible it hasn't rained in about a month all the grass is dead , I don't have to cut it it's dead if it doesn't rain soon were going to be like Texas was last year   I'm having to work real hard to keep the spider mites off some of my plants I use kontos lots of kontos probably use a hole bottle in 4 months . Plus I spray with other things also like bare 3 & 1. Glad to say quiet a few of my plants don't get mites easy so their not as much work anyway here are some blooms for today . hot wired , cosmic gold , electric orange ,another electric orange in the shade , & heavy metal

[davidwood]

Very nice show there Dave, Heavy Metal is one of my favourits to see. I wish I could send you some of the rain we are having, its been torrential for days now, everything is flooded and the strong winds that precede the rains each afternoon have done a lot of damage. I am amazed that my Acapulco Gold has survived and is doing ok, I joked about it being flexible [it was bent over past horizontel], well once I righted it it was ok, the main stake supporting it had snapped at soil level so it really was flexible.

[Ernest]

John, I really like that Wild Grape.
Dave, I don't know that I've ever seen Hot Wired before but what a pretty bloom. Also very nice color on Heavy Metal.
Happy to see my first bloom on Heartbreak Hotel today. Also Simple Pleasures, Haut Coutere, Rocket's Red Glare on day2, Cindy's heart day 2, and Notocactus Magnificus blooming beneath a plumeria.

Erny

[Mike]

Hi Ernest
Hot Wired is an older CV I'v had it for a few years . Here is another picture of it with a double

[Ernest]

Thanks Mike. Very nice. Sorry I called you Dave. Senior brain cramp.

Erny

[Charlie]

Yeah, it is nice to see Hot Wired again. Notice the similarity to High Voltage in the eye and red rays out from the eye? That's because Hot Wired is a true sport (genetic mutation) of High Voltage. I spotted the yellow variation one day in a big group of High Voltage plants, cut the stem the yellow flower was on, grafted it and waited to see whether it would continue to be yellow. When the grafted plant started blooming all the flowers on it were this yellow variation and all plants propagated from the grafted one since have been yellow. I'm a little worried that I may have lost my last big stock plant of it in a reorganization last summer but am hoping not. If I did, Rise and Shine will have to take its place - similar yellow and white with red feathered eye and High Voltage as 1 parent.

Here's a photo of Hot Wired and High Voltage together.

Charlie

[Mike]

Thanks Charlie for the info on hot wired that's interesting .Here are a few nice ones for today heaven scent , this heaven scent has a nice smell to it ,swamp music , heavy metal .

[Mike]

  A few years back I set out to try to make plants that were fuller & had more flowers I have quiet a few where I took cuttings and put 3 or 4 in one pot , heavy metal is one of them I'l show a picture of my original plant that was a one gallon size and my 3 plants in one pot . The small one in the gray pot is the original the terra-cotta , bigger pot is the 3 cuttings . Then a side by side comparison .    

[Ernest]

Very nice Swamp Music and Heaven Scent.
I just got my Silver Dragon and it already has two blooms. I had great expectations and it didn't disappoint.


Erny

[Ernest]

Saffron in bright sun and shade.

[Doll]

Mike, I hope you get some rain soon. I lost several trees last year in the drought. We haven't had any rain in a month either.

Erny, your Saffron is awesome.

[Mike]

  Hi Erny & John your pictures look nice & John I'm only about 8 hours from you so my weather isn't ' much different than yours . I wanted to post 2 pictures of swamp music the picture in the above post was taken around 9:00 in the morning & I just took two now at 7:00 at night. The plant was in the shade all day under a tree but it was 95 degrees today , pretty hot so I guess it would be the sun that would affect it more than the temperature , it still looks nice.

[Yashodhara]

Awesome blooms!!!  

We broke a heat record today here in SE Michigan and got up to 95ºF  
(I hear the rumble of thunder, so here come the storms that usually follow high heat days here... Hope the hibs are thirsty).

My outside hibiscus are adjusting really well, though...

Amber Suzanne (huge bloom - over 8")
Brilliant (a very... brilliant one)
Fantasy Charm
Rosalind
Simple Pleasures

Deb  

[Charlie]

Mike, love your pots of Heavy Metal. The 3 per pot one is extremely full but the single plant is also thriving and filling out its pot. You are growing this "not for beginners" variety very well.

Swamp Music remains a popular variety - we've sold a few dozen this year and the most recent update saw 8 of them sell out within minutes of putting them online. Your photo seems to me to be typical of the flower in summer. There is a more intense look that it can show during winter, particularly in winter greenhouses, with more vivid colors than seen in summer or late on a sunny day. Some see the colors of Swamp Music as muddy and I suppose that is what inspired the name. Here on the west coast we often see the flower at a full 8 inches but I understand that along the Gulf Coast the heat causes it to more often be 6-7 inches.

Charlie

[Charlie]

Spectacular Silver Dragon, Erny! It can be a real show-off in the summer garden. Big disappointment for me that I've never been able to root that variety.

Deb, you've sure got a lot of varieties - and like Erny some I've almost forgotten about such as Amber Suzanne. That fine double flowered variety will get better and better during summer. It was the most award winning hibiscus of its day, which happened to be exactly when I got involved with hibiscus in the early 1990's. Good stout bush, too. Pat Merrit in Houston had one planted in her garden in Houston that reached 6 feet high and 6 feet wide in its prime. Quite a sight!

Charlie