Hidden Valley Hibiscus
Growers & Hybridizers of Exotic, Tropical Hibiscus

Volume 19, Issue 4
April 2019

News from Hidden Valley Hibiscus

HVH Awards Edition!

2018 Hibiscus of the Year 'Dapple Dandy'
Photo Credit ~ Darren Eminian of Colorlicious Hibiscus
Runner-Up for 2018 'Aphrodite' in Page Border

'Love My Mama'

'Paso Doble'

'Yummy'

Happy Spring to All!

Spring finally made it! It took its time coming this year, but it's here at last. Our shipping was delayed by 1-2 weeks, but we got fully underway the last week in March. We have many hundreds of orders to ship out over the next two months, so please be patient while we go through the process. We want to ship our plants even faster than you want us to, so we promise, we are shipping each order as soon as all the plants in each order are ready and as soon as the weather along the delivery route is consistently above 40 degrees at night.

This month we are featuring our 2018 HVH Hibiscus Awards. Sometimes it's hard to pick our "best" hibiscus of the year, and this was one of those year. We had endless discussions, and brought in more and more hibiscus flowers and plants, mulling over all their strengths and weaknesses. We finally agreed on our two award winners, and we hope you like them as much as we do!

At the bottom of the newsletter, you can see all our Past HVH Award Winners, in case you have missed them in past years. We still grow most of them, and most of them are still on our list of our most Tried and True hibiscus varieties. Enjoy!

Happy Spring to all!

Charles & Cindy Black

'Peach Riot'

'Bliss'

'Meditation Garden'

HVH Hibiscus Awards for 2018

It's time for our hibiscus awards for 2018. This year's winners are super bloomers! In our hybridizing, we tend to emphasize our focus on our giant flowers, which are a very important part of our program. But another important part is developing super blooming flowers, and this year's winners reflect that. These are the hibiscus plants that bloom and bloom every day - frequently with multiple flowers. It's even better if the flowers are especially beautiful or interesting! But before we even consider a hibiscus for these awards, we have a list of basic criterion that each candidate must meet:

The flower must have:

Exceptional beauty
Good size
Good form
Durable color
A long-lasting bloom

The bush must be:

Strong, vigorous, and easy to grow
Lush and pretty
Well branched
Upright without drooping or "flopping" branches
A good bloomer

Hibiscus of the Year is a variety that we have been growing for several years, that has proven itself to be reliable, beautiful, and an overall excellent performer and bloomer.

Seedling of the Year is a new hybrid variety that has impressed us very much during its first full year of growing in our greenhouse. It demonstrates some kind of new break-through for us in our hybridizing program, and embodies all the qualities we are striving for.

Our Winners for 2018 are. . .

Hibiscus of the Year: 'Dapple Dandy'

Our Hibiscus of the Year is 'Dapple Dandy.' We chose it because it blooms all the time with consistently beautiful flowers. The colors and markings are one of the most fun aspects of this hibiscus. They vary in different seasons and temperatures, but they are always beautiful in an everchanging display of some of the brightest hibiscus pigments. The flowers of 'Dapple Dandy' are large 7-9" flowers in variable, spotted and splashed rings of yellow, orange and fuchsia around a red eye that is rayed with pink. The bush is beautiful, fast-growing, vigorous, full, lush, and always covered in flowers. 'Dapple Dandy' is easy to grow, even for beginners, one of our most important considerations for our hibiscus awards.

Seedling of the Year: 'Into the Deep'

Exotic Hibiscus 'Into the Deep' in August heat!

Our Seedling of the Year is 'Into the Deep.' It is an excellent bloomer that blooms profusely with large-giant 7-10" single flowers on a beautiful bush. The flowers bloom with a blue body around a burgundy eye that is haloed and rayed with bright red, all surrounded by an edge that varies from ivory to yellow in summer, to a tinge of orange or even to a wide soft pink edge in winter. Unlike most blues that fade and burn away in summer heat, 'Into the Deep' develops its deepest blue in summer heat, even in the heat of our greenhouse! While other blues burn up in the high heat and humidity of August in our greenhouse, 'Into the Deep' blooms more prolifically with deeper, darker blue pigments. This alone makes it a stand-out for us, but on top of that, it blooms all year round, always greets us with flowers, and the flowers are always big and beautiful, whatever the look.

'Into the Deep' in summer

'Into the Deep' in summer on day 2

'Into the Deep' in winter

'Into the Deep' in early spring

'Into the Deep' in fall

And the Runners-Up for 2018 are. . .

Hibiscus of the Year Runners-Up

Seedling of the Year Runners-Up

HVH Hibiscus Awards from Years Past

Below are our award winners for past years. Over the years, as we have hybridized better bushes, larger flowers, better color durability, or better vigor, we have stopped growing a few of these old classics. We try to bring most of them back at some time during the year. But all of them are the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of many of our new hybrids! Often their offspring have improved traits that we want to keep, so we grow the offspring instead of the original award-winning plant. We have many of these award-winners and even more of their descendents in our store right now!