Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Colquhounia coccinea...I almost missed the flowers assuming the first blooms would be terminal


After waiting all summer, I stopped looking closely when the temperatures began to spend most of their time in the 40's and 50's F, figuring this wasn't going to be the year. Noticed these flowers today near the ground which is 5--6-7 feet below the tops of these plants. Wow, first the Hibiscus mutabilis 'Flore Plena', that had 19 flowers open today, well halfway open. It was cloudy and rainy all day. Now this. I have to think that if we chose to site for flowering we could have done better. Maybe against a west facing wall, or behind a dark paved area, someplace that would accumulate warmth. Or maybe when these plants have bigger root systems next year) they'll get a faster start and flower earlier. We'll watch.

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