Honorable Mention - Hibiscus
Hibiscus or the RosemallowWhat Big Beautiful Blooms!
There are 220 varieties of the tropical hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The tropical varieties usually have glossy green leaves. The flowers are orange, yellow, red, pink with double or single flowers. Hardy varieties will never come in yellow, orange, peach or salmon colors. Hardly hibiscus do not have multicolored flowers or double flowers but the blooms of a hardy hibiscus be up to 13 inches in diameter. Their leaves are a dull green.
The hibiscus leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to lanceolate, often with a toothed or lobed margin. The flowers are large, conspicuous, trumpet-shaped, with five or more petals and the plant can grow up to 15ft. tall.
There are cold hardy hybrids of hibiscus moscheutos, Hibiscus coccineus, Hibiscus laevis, Hibiscus militaris and Hibiscus palustris. Some of the most common cold hardy varieties (patented hybrids) are Fireball, Lady Baltimore, Kopper King, Lord Baltimore, Blue River II, & Anne Arundel. Do your research on these hybrids to be certain they will do well in your zone. Swamp Rose mallow or Hibiscus moscheutos will do well in zones 4-9 and some sellers claim up to zone 11. Although Swamp Rose Mallow naturally grow in the wet lands they do beautifully in your garden. The pictures are my neighbors hibiscus (I took this snapshot in early August) and we are talking mid-west freezing cold long winters. If you live in zones 4 or less, you will need to consider cutting them back, digging up the roots and storing them in a cool place in your basement.
The hardy hibiscus are perennials and will come up year after year. They are certainly flowers that will draw the attention of neighbors all around. To keep them blooming up until frost, deadhead the flowers and remove the seed pods regularly. After the first frost cut to the base of the plant and I would recommend covering with a generous amount of mulch to protect the roots over the winter.
They will do well planted in full sun but if the temperatures are hot and humid they will do better in partial shade. Soil should be incorporated with peat moss or compost/soil mixture. You can also add them to your water garden as long as you don't emerge them deeper than 6 inches but do not cut them back in the fall if you live in a climate with heavy rain fall as the hollow stems will collect water and rot. Just leave them be.
You can divide these plants in Spring just as you are seeing signs of them coming to life. Seeds should soaked for 12 t0 24 hours prior to planting indoors in late winter or if you have a long warm season you can plant the seeds in drills 1 inch deep around May or June and transplanted to their chosen spot in the fall.
I must say, I think I took far more walks this summer just to admire my neighbors wonderful hibiscus. Something about those big wonderful flowers made me feel like I was in wonderland.
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiosperms
Class: Eudicots
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Subfamily: Malvoideae
Tribe: Hibisceae
Genus: Hibiscus L.