I'd love some of each red flowered and one with red leaves, love the hardy hibiscus, have pink and white, check my list and let me know what we can trade...love garage sale garden finds, as much as the garage sale find, carry a few seed pkts in my purse. thanks Bea

I take it you're talking about tropcial hibiscus - H. rosa-sinensis. I have a few seeds. The mother is a red and the father may be a red or a pink. Barb

Hi guys, Just have a minute! I'm cooking and cleaning and packing and watering, trying to get ready to hightail it out of town! Normally when the flower drops off, or you pull it off, the seedhead, which looks very much like the bud before it opens when it gets larger, stays on the plant, the pod and seeds develop, and then it browns and opens as the seeds ripen. The pic below shows them completely open, and the seeds would be falling out by that stage. (They're really nice for dried arrangements!) I don't know why you guys aren't getting seeds--BUT--I just ran out to look at mine, and the seed pods aren't developing on mine this year either! They have the "beginning" of a seed pod, but when I squeeze them, they're "empty," and they very easily fall off! A good pod with seed developing in it will be firm and not easily come off of the plant--I have to cut them off when I save them. So I don't know if they're not being pollinated for some strange reason, or if all the heat is having some effect on them this year! There will always be some that don't develop seed, but with the one I have in the Disco Belle series, they have so many flowers that I normally get LOTS of pods and seeds! Looks like not this year! I'd say hang in there and keep an eye on them as the weather, hopefully, cools some, and possibly some of the pods could develop then. I've never done this, but you could try hand pollinating some of the flowers--tho you'd need to go out to do it every day since the flowers only last one day! Whether the spent flowers drop off by themselves, or you pull them gently off, it won't make any difference in whether you get seed or not. By then they're fertilized and the seed pod is starting to grow if it's gonna happen, or, if seeds aren't gonna develop, there's nothing you can do about it by the time the flower is closing! It'll be interesting to see if pods are developing on mine by the time I get back home! If no pods this year I definitely wouldn't give up on them! Tomorrow (next year!) IS another day!!! Soon headin' out to cooler territory, Skybird Here is a link that might be useful:

yes they are beautiful =) also edible flowers, entire plant edible, all members of the hibiscus family and of the extended family of mallows are entirely edible. easy care- they grow abundantly once established. you dont have to fuss over them much, just give them water every so often and they grow very big =) rose of sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, is one kind of hardy hibiscus, the other main one being hibiscus moscheutos. to sow your seeds, plant them in winter outside, either directly in the ground or in pots. let the winter cold stratify them for you, or alternatively you can look into the cold stratification methods using the fridge.