Hibiscus blooming in my yard

[Atash Hagmahani]

This is Hibiscus sinosyriacus. Not particularly common in the USA, though one national mail-order nursery started carrying it, so not as rare as it used to be. It comes in two colors, this one, and a white-with-red-center. It is one of the coldhardiest hibiscus, after H. moscheutos of the upper Mississipi drainage, and H. syriacus, the common purple-flowered tree Hibiscus that is common in much of the Midwest. It is native somewhere in China.

I post stuff like this just for fun. My yard was full of this stuff, before I started realizing we were in serious trouble. Now I don't collect stuff like this anymore, but I take care of what I have. This has been a good little bloomer; my wife loves it.

[lora]

That is just beautiful. I'm a flower lover and special flowers like that arent that common here in Oklahoma. Not something located in every flowerbed here. People who have green thumbs seem to have luck with those.  I'm not brave enough to include that in my group. It would be a shame to not be able to keep it looking like that. My specialty seems to be dandelions.

[Lady Lilya]

Atash, you talk like hibiscus is purely decorative.  I'm sure you know it is edible.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Well, some of the tropical species are.

The way cool one is the one that you can use the petals for making smoothies, and the leaves as yet another "spinach-like vegetable". Hibiscus acetosella.  And you can look at the big flowers it has. Quite ornamental.

I can't grow it, except as a summer annual. It probably grows great gangbusters in Bermuda for The Future.

I could probably use the petals of mine, but the usual edible part, the seedpod, is probably too fibrous.

[Lady Lilya]

A spinach-like vegetable would be good in smoothies too. 

People usually eat the seedpod?  I was thinking about the flowers.  Hibiscus flower tea is popular around here.

[Atash Hagmahani]

I was thinking about the flowers.  Hibiscus flower tea is popular around here.

I know they call it "Hibiscus Petal" tea, but they are actually the CALYCES of H. sabdariffa. That's one species I can't grow (unless maybe briefly in the summer). Too tropical.

(to me, it tastes too much like "kool-aide" (tm).)

H. acetosella does have petals that are used RAW to make smoothies.

If you ever have time and budget to come out here, you can see all my other Hibiscuses. Some of them have flowers roughly 16 inches across. That one's a bit over-the-top actually; I have more tasteful varieties too.

I have Abutilons too. Same family--Malvaceae--but from South America. You might have heard of them as "Flowering Maples". On the East Coast they are houseplants but some of them are outdoor shrubs here, that are among the few in the family that grow in shade.

Oh, one flower I know you of all people would love--Lord Anson's Pea, Lathyrus nervosus. A South American "sweet pea" that is both fragrant AND perennial (the Common Sweet Pea, L. odoratus, is alas annual).