Hi, I have some young hibiscus coccineus (Scarlet - swamp ) planted from seeds and can't wait until their old enough to flower. I just saw a picture of the Grandiflorus and wonder if it produced seed as well? If anyone has any seeds I would love some. I do have a few coccineus seeds to share but they are about a year old, hopefully still good. Thank you, Ian

I have some I can share. Send me an email if you are interested. Thanks, Ibartoo

I'm not familiar with all the hibiscus varieties you mentioned, but H. moscheutos are the ones I use in my wet garden. They are sometimes called swamp hibiscus. I have a dwarf variety of moscheutos (forgot the variety name) in the somewhat drier part of my still wet lower garden that is white with a red center. I also have one called Sweet Caroline (a pink one) on the other very wet side corner. It is vase shaped with very tall hollow canes that stay up all winter and must be sawed off in the spring. It has not sprouted yet, being a very slow, but extremely quick growing perennial. Sweet Caroline gets about 7 foot tall and about 3 feet in diameter, spreading out perhaps a foot or so wider than that at the very top. This is a very erect variety, but I do use a 24 inch wide/cross-hatched/3 legged/ metal circular support pushed deep into my heavy clay to keep the branches started upright at the base. Because of its size and erect nature it has quite an architectural, formal effect in the garden, even though the flowers themselves are huge and a bit floppy looking. The only problem with it is that the large dead blossoms fold up and look bad for awhile (and look like crushed wet paper towels on the ground) and should be pulled off the plant promptly, hard to do at 7 feet! Foliage stays perfect, rich deep green until late fall. There are a lot of other varieties of H. moscheutos - in many different sizes - but some of them tend to flop. SW does not, at least in my wet heavy clay. I think the original tag on SW said 4-5 feet, but she got 7 foot in her first season. My plant is at least 6 years old, never a problem or disease, spreading slightly wider at a very moderate pace.

You are talking about the hardy hibiscus, Hibiscus Coccineus. No, I do not think it would be wise to overwinter indoors. They seem to need their winter's rest period. They do sprout up in the spring, but they are normally quite late in sprouting. Make sure that it is planted in a sunny spot, so that it gets nourishment from the light, as well as a good soil. I have one that did not bloom this year too, but it is in a semi-sun spot. Just my humble opinion.... John