Hibiscus Gardens Around the World
Cochabamba, Bolivia
This is Walter. He and his family live in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the "City of Eternal Spring." It is one of the largest cities in Bolivia, nestled into a sheltered valley that is 8400 feet (215m) high in the Andes Mountains. The weather is very similar to Los Angeles, moderate and dry with an average yearly rainfall of only 14 inches (36cm) per year. But the average temperatures are about 10°F (5°C) cooler than Los Angeles all year round, making it a very desirable place to live.
The history of Walter's city is a colorful as the hibiscus flowers he grows there! Cochabamba is an ancient city, first inhabited by the Tiahuanacos around 1500 BC, then shared with several arriving tribes. After 3000 years of peaceful sharing of the land, an Incan Emperor conquered the extremely fertile area and enslaved the people so he could grow maize there. An equally despotic Spanish explorer arrived in 1542 and bought the whole Cochabamba area from the Incans for 130 pesos! The Cochabambans finally got their independence from the Spanish in 1812 due to the spectacular courage of their women. On May 27, while many of the men ran away from the city, almost every woman grabbed whatever she had to shoot, throw, or swing, stood arm-to-arm, and fought 5000 fully armed Spanish soldiers until the Spaniards finally gave up and left. Vivan las mujeres! (Go girls!)
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Nights can get cold in winter high in the Andes Mountains, so Walter grows his young hibiscus in pots and then plants them in the ground when they are more mature with harder wood, much as we do in Southern California.
It's a lot of work watering so many hibiscus plants, but Walter has great helpers. His granddaughters, Melina and Sofía, have become his assistant gardeners. It's a tough job taking care of hibiscus bushes that are bigger than they are, but these little girls are up to the job!
It's a struggle to get new hibiscus varieties in Bolivia. Importation laws are completely prohibitive when it comes to plants, so hibiscus lovers have had to grow from wood and seeds they collect from around the world. But now there is an increasingly dedicated group of hibiscus aficionados in Cochabamba who are hybridizing their own new, gorgeous, Bolivian cultivars, and a new booming market may slowly be starting. Walter has been collecting hibiscus for many years, slowly increasing his own collection, and is one of the original lovers of exotic hibiscus in his city. We hope you enjoy seeing his beauties!
Thank you, Walter, for showing us all your lovely hibiscus! Gracias por enseñarnos todos sus hibiscus hermosos!
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Seedling of the Month...
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This month's Seedling of the Month doesn't have a name yet, but it certainly has pigments! We're always working on developing flowers with more intense and durable pigments, as most of you know. This new seedling certainly has intense pigments! So far the pigments have also been durable. We're crossing our fingers that both the intensity and durability hold through different seasons and growing conditions.
This seedling is the child of two intensely red parents. Mother 'Flamboyant' blooms with a vivid fire-engine red flower with a soft pink eye and yellow sparkles that turn into a mottled yellow edge in summer heat. Giant father 'Red Cadillac' has the deepest and most durable red pigments of all our reds, with blue-black undertones in its color. The blue undertones of the father's genes show in the purple ring around the white eye. The white eye and pink halo come from the mother's soft pink eye. The red rings show the colors of both parents - the inner dark red ring comes from the father's deep bluish red, and the outer fire-engine red comes from the mother's more vivid orangy red. The yellow edge of course comes from the outer yellow markings of 'Flamboyant.' It's rare for us to be able to see multiple individual characteristics of each parent reflected in a single offspring as this one does. It makes this a super fun seedling for us to watch.
So far this flower has been 8-9" across consistently, so we're not sure if it will be in the 7-9" range like its mother or in the giant 8-10" range like its father. Only time will tell. It tends to develop small petaloids, and this is without any summer heat yet, so the petaloids could get bigger when we finally get some heat. We still have to evaluate the bush and how well it propagates, so we have more work ahead of us. But we're hoping to have this new seedling some day in the future!
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