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Mississippi Hibiscus

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May 3, 2020
One of my favorite landscape shrubs is hibiscus. There are four types of these flowering shrubs we grow in our Mississippi Landscapes. Hardy hibiscus selections are winter hardy, having been bred from the native hibiscus of the Gulf coast. The flowers of hardy hibiscus are HUGE, sometimes up to 12 inches across and are often called dinner plate hibiscus. Flower colors include white, pinks, reds and bicolors. Confederate Rose is an old fashioned plant that is not a rose at all, but a hibiscus with other common names such as Cotton rose or Cotton Rosemallow. The large bright green deeply lobed leaves are big and fuzzy on the undersides. Beginning in the summer and through the fall, Confederate Rose is in its prime producing hundreds of blooms with varying shades of white, pink and dark pink per plant. Cajun hibiscus, a tropical hibiscus, produce huge flowers with some of the most beautiful and complex and mesmerizing color combinations. The various selections feature colors ranging from bright yellows, pink, red, and whites. Talk about a Technicolor dream. Rose of Sharon, actually a hibiscus, is big and bold in the landscape. This plant has the potential for a mature height greater than 10 feet and a four to six-foot spread. This is a later flowering shrub after many other flowering shrubs have already bloomed. Hibiscus gives the Mississippi gardener lots of choices for flowering summer shrubs. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I hope you join me next time on Southern Gardening.
 

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