Hibiscus Flowers

We were recently at Beard Park in Little Elm. Apparently the area combined several smaller settlements to make a town, eventually with a dry goods store, post office, and more.

There is a replica house and post office there, unfortunately with a wasp infestation.  They left everyone alone though so I guess it isn't too bad really. Likely they were attracted to such flowers like the hibiscus shown here.

Growing up we had a lot of hibiscus plants.  This was another of my grandfather's breeding projects.  I really don't remember the colors we had, I was little and that was probably the least of my concerns.  Everyone knows that lizards and garden snakes are much more important.  Our yard really did have a lot of both of these. The anole were all over the house and green houses.  As for the snakes all you usually had to do was turn over one of the larger rocks to find one curled up resting.

This was only one of the colors they had out at the park.  Got a few seeds of course to see what cross pollination occurred out there. There may have been even more hibiscus flowers in the area. Pollination can happen over fairly large distances and with the number of pollinators in the area the likeliness is pretty good. We'll see what pops up.

Day Lily #2

Here is the other day lily we bought last year that has decided to finally bloom.  This one is an orange flower with a little darker center, a more common flower.  This cluster has quite a few blooms on it though.

Day lily flowers only stay open for a day but the presence of so many buds means that it will have flowers for several days even if each individual flower is fleeting.

Next spring I'm going to have to amend the soil and divide up the root system.  It can get really crowded and dividing give the plants plenty of room to divide and thrive.

Again I'd like to try cross pollinating these guys.  This kind of flower is perfect for toning down or possibly a splash of contrast, depending on what the genes decide to do when crossing.

It's been a while but when I was a kid, back in the day, my grandfather had a grant to cross breed hibiscus plants.  I don't recall how many varieties he produced but I remember him making charts and reports on the resulting plants. We had so many pots of them inside and outside of the house.  The den would have them lining the wall in winter if it was going to get too cold.  I still remember the flagstone path that led to the sitting area out back and the flowers that surrounded it.  At the time I thought of it like my own little jungle.

Pink Hibiscus



So pretty but this is one plant that I probably won't grow.  My grandpa grew these and cross bred them down in southwest Louisiana where the humidity and temperatures were nearly ideal for these to thrive but even he had to overwinter them sometimes by bringing them into the house due to occasional cold snaps.

Up here we get both colder and hotter so growing them would be an issue.  Not to say you can't grow them since this picture was taken up this way but not what I want to sign up for.

Another plant I do plan to grow and possibly cross pollinate is the day lily. If you've read a bit of this blog you may remember the one I used to have that I had crossed back down south and brought with me.  I should have put it in full sun and kept is alive better but alas it's been long gone. This past week though I have purchased 2 different varieties and plan to put them up front of the house in the planter area.  They should do quite nicely.  I got them the same time I got the fig tree I planted out back.

The fig tree by the way has been in the ground now three days and seems to be acclimating nicely.  I must remember to water it regularly though for a while until it's fully set.  Also the clay soil around here is a bit rough so I amended it with some potting soil and cut it in before I planted.

Hibiscus Beating the Heat

My hibiscus is successfully beating the heat. It took a little while for it to acclimate but once it did it seems to be able to withstand almost anything. Most of the potted plants are dropping leaves but the hibiscus is sprouting new ones and putting on buds!
I guess I'll wait and see what kind of flowers it puts out.

Austin Trip Botanical Gardens

I went to see my brother in Austin while my wife attended a writing conference there, which seemed to go well.

They took me around to see the usual suspects for a plant type, the Botanical Gardens and a really neat nursery. I picked up a plumeria there, which I never realized that it was the same as a frangipani, a yellow one. I brought him a couple key lime trees which he already had one but it went through a tough winter and shrank a little. While I was there I picked some really nasty leaf eaters off of his key lime tree and took pictures of his lemon tree.

While at the gardens I saw some great hibiscus and bamboo, both of which I adore, but my wife says that invading the city with bamboo is somehting that probably wouldn't be appreciated.

I know this is a gardneing blog but upon leaving Panera Bread I saw a most lovely flower named thing that can only be appreciated by seeing it, too bad I coudn't drive it.