It is a beautiful Confederate Rose! As soon as I figure out how to upload a photo, I'll show you mine! lol And the way they change from pristine white to a soft pink on through to a deep rose and then the spent bloom fades to purple! The mature specimens I've always seen around are mostly like your's, grown as a tall, loose shrub in the lawn, but they look a bit gangling I think. So I'm thinking I'll plant mine in a rich bed and head it back to make it shorter and bushier, see if that might not give it a better form, which will also serve to increase the blooms, they bloom on new wood. And since it only blooms once in the fall, I think I'll grow a clematis up and through it to give me another whole season of color. They should make good companion plants.
I had to grow mine from a cutting, they're not available in the trade, so I'm going to try very hard not to lose it! But it was pretty easy to root from a cutting. The botanical name is Hibiscus mutabilis and it is an heirloom plant.
If you check your bush, if it has finished flowering, there should be a lot of seed pods on it. They are hairy little buff colored balls where the flowers were. Don't pick them green, the seeds need to ripen. When the seed pods have dried you can pick them and break them open and save all those little black seeds for next year. Just put them in a paper envelope and label it. If you haven't ever saved seed and started new plants with them, you really should. But fair warning . . . you just may be starting a life-long passion!
Last edited by Coastal Alabama; 11-17-2009 at 11:54 PM.
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