... growing and hybridizing all kinds of plants in zone 6b Maryland since the 1980's.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Hibiscus grandiflorus opening

Well, the lone bud that resulted from the trashcan trickery is opening this evening. By 6:00 PM, it was open enough to see completely inside. Severe thunderstorms were starting up, so I went ahead and picked it and brought it inside. I got a nice picture of it open [with a little persuasion] and went ahead and refrigerated at least half of the pollen. The rest I plan to use in the morning on some extra late blooms of 'Blue River II' - a pure white hardy Hibiscus moscheutos type hybrid. I had to remove ALL of the normal season blooms and buds from 'Blue River II' to force it to regrow and generate these flowerbuds from laterals that wouldn't normally have bloomed. If left to its own devices it would be dropping mature seeds by now. With all of this trickery and coersion, maybe I'll finally get some grandiflorus hybrid seedlings. By the way, the grandiflorus flower was scented just like always. It reminds me of some scent from childhood but I haven't been able to place it yet. It's sort of like a less intense version of the scent of certain daffodils/Narcissus. 

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