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Arizona Gardening

FINALLY, some blooms on my Hibiscus mutabilis

grant_in_arizona

11 years ago

Hi everyone,

I'm really excited! The Hibiscus mutabilis plants that I started from stick-like stem cuttings late last winter are finally blooming. Yay! They rooted fairly quickly, and became nice shrubby specimens in the garden, and now, finally, they're starting to bloom. I love them!

As one would expect, these double flowered blooms open white and then fade to a nice pink by the end of the day. Today is the second morning and the blooms are pink and still holding on to the plant. Here are a couple of pics of the exact same bloom yesterday morning and this morning. I hope you'll take a look and enjoy. Me so happy.

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Happy gardening!

Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics, so far, from my garden November 2012

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Comments (9)

azbolt
11 years ago
Very nice! I've got buds on mine but no blossoms yet...

Kevin
ra
11 years ago
Awesome grant!

No blooms yet on mine but lots of buds! because I relocated mine. They used to be planted on my lawn and I dug them up this summer and planted them with my Cannas, so it set them back a bit. Most of their leaves died back. One actually died back to the ground which sucked because it was over 7ft tall! Now it's got plenty of new shoots coming from the ground and already 3ft tall and with lots of buds.
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ra
11 years ago
Hod did you root your cuttings btw? did you just put them in water until they rooted?
Pagancat
11 years ago
Just beautiful!

When I saw "mutabilis" I was hoping you had the rose by that name (for the same reason) - it's one I have been waffling on for some years.
grant_in_arizona
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks all, I'm really excited about it, so I really appreciate your comments! Thanks.

Definitely post pics of yours when they bloom Kevin and raimeiken! We'd love to see! I bought my cuttings as leafless pencil-like stems that I rooted in plain water. I left a small jar of water uncovered overnight to let the chlorine evaporate off and then used that to change the water of the rooting jar, every day until the roots were about an inch long and then I moved them into potting soil. I rooted a few mid-summer this summer from soft, green, leafy stems and they rooted fine in water too. Really a fun plant.

Definitely get the 'butterfly rose' (Rosa mutabilis) pagan, I've grown it in several gardens including my last Scottsdale garden and really loved it. Pretty, color changing blooms and a nice light rose scent. Seeing a big bush with multiple blooms in different colors is quite a treat!

Happy gardening everyone!
Grant
Pagancat
11 years ago
*Really*. Okay, I'm definitely less waffle and more convinced, lol... shoulda known, with Mr. Enabler (rolls eyes).
Haname
11 years ago
That is a gorgeous plant! Are you growing them in ground or in pots? What is the best exposure?
grant_in_arizona
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, Haname. These are in the ground in full, hot sun. They've been getting watered 3x per week, although I just switched them over to once a week for autumn through spring. I'm far from an expert on them, so let's see how other folks are growing them too, but mine seem to love the sun.

Happy gardening!
Grant
ra
11 years ago
The more sun the faster they grow

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