July flowers of the day.

[Charlie]

Dark of Night bloomed today on a piece of wood that I cut for cuttings. No sun to lighten it up and it is very inky black. Thought you all would like to see how black a hibiscus can be.

Charlie

[motherof4]

really pretty....and thankyou charlie...I did e-mail cindy...lynette

[Pachrian]

It's really living up tp it's name, isn't it? As amazing as it looks in the photo, it must be quite a sight in real life. It looks almost orchid-like in the pic.  

[blupit007]

OMG!!!  that is awesome!

[helixturnhelix]

That is a really cool flower.  I had no idea that dark of night got so black!  That might be another one for my never ending collection of dark colored CVs

[blupit007]

I just wanted to share the bloom I got today from Cindy's Heart.  It is quite brilliant!  No photoshopping at all. 

[Charlie]

Cindy's Heart is one of those flowers that doesn't need any help to impress with color. The pinks are very deep and vibrant. I wish it was one that allowed for fast and easy propagation because it deserves to be out there in big numbers. Won't happen, though, and you now have one of fewer than 100 plants that exist around the world.

Charlie

[Charlie]

Chris, Dark of Night and Pinot Noir are examples of how black the dark purples can be when the flowers open. You won't see this same color after the flower opens and sits in the sun for a couple of hours but if picked early and brought inside this is what you get.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Very cool Charlie, I am looking to PN blooming.  Another great Bonnie Lass today.  I picked this one in the morning, before it opened and it is a great bloom.  Ive been having to pick alot of the flowers that I have been getting in order to enjoy them, the sun here burns them all badly. 

Perhaps you could help me figure out what is going on with Black Cherry, it gets big buds that look like they should open, but they just sit there closed.  This has happened with three blooms on this plant, that the buds got big and it did nothing.  They didn't even turn yellow and fall off, they are just attached, not doing anymore growing or opening.  Do you ever see this happen?

[Charlie]

Chris, some of the customers I had in Tahiti told me that by mid morning there is not a hibiscus bloom to be found outdoors. All the big buds are picked just as they start to open and then are used to decorate homes, restaurants, offices, and women's hair. You are following a long standing tradition, not sure whether the flowers burn in the tropics but now we know that they do at high elevations.

I'm not sure what is going on with Black Cherry. You could try moving the plant inside when the next bud grows large enough and see if that makes a difference. What's the humidity like outdoors in your area? If it's low you could try creating some extra humidity around the plant by filling a large, shallow saucer with water and then setting the pot in the middle but elevated up out of the water by stones or some other support. It does not sound like an insect problem so environmental seems the most likely. Let me know if anything changes.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

I brought it inside yesterday.  So we will know if we can get blooms from it soon.  It looks like one should open today   Black Cherry is a very cool plant,  Ive opened up the buds that didnt open and the color was really dark.  I also have a Dragon's Heart and Black Dragon that should be blooming too   Dark blooms day!  Random question: Did you end up grafting Dark Angel this year?   

The sun here is VERY strong, so much so that my plants that were put out in spring are showing sunburns on their older leaves, that should have acclimated.  The new growth does not have this problem, but when you have to bring your plants inside until May here it is a bit of a problem, I also think the erratic weather is too much for hibiscus, so they have been dropping more buds than normal.  Weather has been pretty consistent for the last three weeks, and low and behold a bunch of buds forming, I guess stability is key with hibiscus

[Charlie]

Stability is definitely the key for hibiscus. The dislike being moved and changes in their environment but sometimes it's still best to move them around.

I did graft Dark Angle but it didn't make it. Lately 2 bigger plants of it that are growing in the greenhouse have been blooming and the blooms have been excellent. A unique dark color, different than Dark of Night and Pinot Noir. Seeing them makes me want to try again and I plan to. This is one that went from rooting to neither rooting or working as a graft. Who knows why......but the plants that are blooming appear healthy and hopefully the wood I take later will be healthy and can be propagated.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

That is too bad Charlie about Dark Angel, some plants are just difficult to propagate.  Did you use the same root stock for grafting Dark Angel?  It might be possible that certain CVs might reject grafts of one variety, but not of another just like sometimes skin grafts or bone grafts get rejected due to differences between the donor and host. 

If you used the same rootstock maybe try grafting with different rootstock you have available.  Perhaps Dark Angel doesnt like Pride of Hankins but will readily graft to Albo?  Or maybe try another rootstock completely.  This leads me to another question, are all garden varieties good for rootstock or are there specific varieties that work best?  This is a bit of tangent for flowers of the day, but its almost August

[Charlie]

Good idea, Chris. Unfortunately I don't remember what I used but I can do multiple grafts and use both rootstocks the next time, writing on the tag what was used for the rootstock. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in takes.

When I first started grafting I used Kona, a garden variety from Hawaii that makes nice pink double flowers. It worked great but the word from Florida is that it was more likely to get root rot than Pride of Hankins or Albo so I switched to Pride of Hankins once I had some good plants of it growing. Now I doubt that Kona would have had problems in the drier weather of California but POH and Albo are such good rootstocks that I stick with them.

Before that happened I did experiment with the readily available red single hibiscus Brilliant. To my surprise the success was much less with Brilliant. The standard advice is to use any garden variety that grows well in your area if the 2 specialized root stock plants are not available. Avoid using those that grow tall thin branches such as H schizopetalus or El Capitolio, the reason being that the scion plant will grow thicker than the root stock over time and cause problems.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Thanks for the advice!  I want to try my hand at grafting in the near future, so I will need to get one of those varieties.  I should probably get one that resists root rot, so Albo or POH?  I saw some POH wood at the garden shop a few weeks ago, they were pruning their huge plants.  It was tempting to take it   How about H. rosa-siensis?  I would think that the species plant would have the best rootstock. 

I remember there being some other dark blues besides Dark Angel, any prospects?  I'm still waiting for MBH to bloom, is this one that blooms small or does it take some time for it grow a bit?  The foliage on MBH sure is nice though...