Viewing comments posted by psa

Pinwheel chimera with large pink bloom, variable center purple stripe, some purple fantasy. Medium-dark green quilted standard.

1-2" frilled double pansy burgundy blooms on well-branched inflorescence. Quilted, medium-dark green, large standard. Very showy.

H. arnottianus blooms heavily, and the flowers sometimes have a faint, pleasant scent. This hibiscus is tougher and faster growing than the fancy large-flowered hybrids, but slower than some of the other species. Remarkably tolerant of temperatures down to freezing for short periods. Well-suited to growing in a container, but I would recommend 5 gallons+.

Heavy bearer of large, sweet, flavorful fruit from May through July here. Tough, cold hardy, tolerant of poor soil and drought. Really an excellent tree.

This fig is still somewhat rare, and difficult to get a hold of since Asiatica went out of business in 2011, though it is starting to become available. It bears an extended crop of large, dark purple figs. First year crops are not very impressive, but after a couple seasons the figs can be very sweet with moderate "fig" flavor, especially when allowed to fully ripen. The variegation is susceptible to burning in my hot dry climate under all-day sun, and the tree does not grow as aggressively as non-variegated types, but it is still robust and quick to mature. Like many figs it requires a very large pot or ground planting to grow and produce well, though I have also kept them small and ornamental in smaller containers for the last five years, as well. Branches and root suckers sometimes revert to all green or attempt to grow all white, so the tree requires a little bit of pruning to keep it variegated. Outside plantings here in zone 7 tend to winter kill to the ground without protection. Although none of my experimental unprotected trees have produced fruit in the year they died to the ground, they do get bigger each year and may eventually do so--I'm only going into the third year of this experiment.