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Charlie
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« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2009, 07:58:41 AM » |
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This is an interesting question. For the most part, Kerry is right - we replace older cvs with better ones that come along. However, some cvs are always in demand despite their (sometimes serious) drawbacks. Like Blue Moon, for example. I do try to cycle back and grow some of those that are unique and distinctive so that they do not become extinct. Some I used to grow but no longer have can be found in South America and Japan among other places and I could probably get them back.
I sometimes see older cvs being offered from Florida sources that were inferior at the time they first appeared and are even worse now in comparison to the improved varieties available today. That is probably because for show people "new and different" has always been more important than "new and better". I mean that in the sense that the flower was all important, and the other characteristics were inconsequential. So instead of seeing overall improvements over time what we saw was different flowers over time but the growth habit and performance of the new varieties did not change much.
You don't realize how important the overall plant is until you start placing hibiscus in garden centers. Go to a good one and look around. The plants of all types are nice looking. Very few floppy, sprawling, flower hanging down plants to be seen (unless the species is supposed to do that for whatever reason). When I first started placing the hibiscus I had collected into the best garden centers in southern California it was literally an embarrassment to me. The flowers were great when you could see them but the bushes were a turn off to potential customers. When I spoke to that generation of hybridizers about improving the situation I found lukewarm interest at best. That is when I decided to start hybridizing.
I point this out because when we say "better" we mean something more than just a "different" flower. We are looking for ease and reliability in propagation, vigor and the tendency to branch well, an upright growth habit, good presentation of the flowers, bright or interesting colors, sometimes large size, disease and insect resistance, heat and cold tolerance, and high flower count.
When you look at the American Hibiscus Society's Hibiscus of the Year list for the last 25 years the problem becomes apparent. Which of those varieties is still sought after, still grown by commercial growers in large numbers? Which have passed the tests of time? How many are extinct or very hard to find now? Well, most are long gone, some extinct, and none that I know of are easy to find and still being grown in large numbers. A few have been used extensively in hybridizing - such as Dragons Breath, Fifth Dimension, and more recently Black Dragon. Those 3 are all problematic as plants, and so although they can be found for sale they are not produced in larger numbers.
There are only a few hibiscus varieties from the last 25 years that are still widely grown, and interestingly enough most of those did not win the top prize when they were eligible. High Voltage is the prime example. It does almost everything right, is fit for the garden center, and still wows just about everyone with its big, bright flowers. Thrips and spider mites like it more than some other varieties but otherwise it is a rare example of an overall excellent variety hybridized over a decade ago. Rosalind is another example, but the need to graft it has caused it to be grown less than it would otherwise be.
There is one other aspect that determines which hibiscus are grown and which dropped. This is the little known but serious problem of contamination of stock with virus, fungus, and bacteria. If new fresh stock plants are not propagated and grown to replace aging ones what happens is that the ability of the older plants to provide wood that is healthy, propagates readily, and grows well decreases. When this happens rare varieties are often dropped due to a lack of suitable wood to propagate with. There are techniques such as using meristems in tissue culture that can free a variety from contamination and thus renew the variety, but these are not used with hibiscus due to expense and lack of expertise within the hibiscus growing community. We may see such practices as micropropagation and virus indexing in the future for hibiscus.
Anyway, the simple answer is yes, we replace older with newer (and better rather than just different, hopefully) but we also contend with decline of stock plants that prevents some varieties from lasting more than a few years.
Photo of Hibiscus 'High Voltage' is below. This one is in our garden, but grew in a big pot for years before being planted 3 years ago. It blooms and grows beautifully, very full now after providing 100s of cuttings over the years. This photo was taken yesterday.
Charlie
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