Although the first words have barely hit this column, I am getting a sense of glee. Just think, it took a garden writer, The Garden Guy, to beat the big boys to Valentine's. When you see Valentine’s stuff the day after Christmas, just remember where you saw it first.
In truth I’m not trying to sell you Valentine's stuff, but to alert you to the most beautiful new hibiscus making its debut in the spring, Summerific Valentine’s Crush. The competition will be so great for this plant that you need to bribe your garden center now to get in the game, so to speak, and order them.
You may have thought Summerific Holy Grail or Summerific Cranberry Crush was the ultimate achievement in red shade hibiscus, but I predict Summerfic Valentine’s Crush will reign at the pinnacle for quite some period of time. The 7-inch flowers open to reveal a bright cherry red with a dark center. This is the red of your dreams, the red that makes you think so tropical you will be fooling not only your friends and neighbors, but Mother Nature, too.
Summerific Valentine’s Crush and Summerific Lilac Crush are making their debut in 2023, bringing the series to a dazzling 12 selections. This is my fourth year in a row to be growing Summerific hibiscus or rose mallow. As I regularly tell you, I am sun-challenged, but the performance has gotten better and better each year. This year I had blooms from mid-June until late August. My sunlight challenge means I will never have those catalog photos with 50-plus blooms, but I will have enough to make me happy and delight in watching you grab your camera.
But I want to go back to the tropical look that may fool Mother Nature. While I am guilty of choosing the varieties to do that, and even more so when combined with bananas and giant alocasia elephant ears, I want to challenge your design creativity with the Summerific colors that immediately tell you it is a hardy hibiscus. Get one thing in your mind: Hardy hibiscus is a good thing. It’s not cheap, but it's a wonderful partner for your other annuals and perennials. They are cold-hardy from zones 4-9, meaning just about everyone can grow them.
Take for instance the award-winning Summerific Cherry Choco Latte. Not for a nanosecond will you think tropical, but the white light pink flowers that look drizzled with dark cherry from the center outward will take your breath away. In my garden I have Summerific Berry Awesome combined with Heart to Heart Bottle Rocket caladiums and Summerific Spinderella with Heart to Heart Tickle Me Pink caladiums, Shadowland Etched Glass hostas and the green leaf texture of Dandy Man Color Wheel rhododendrons that bloomed early in the season.
The Summerfic series of hardy hibiscus are put together with native DNA. While you may struggle with creating the perfect garden soil with most other plants, these could also be classified as suitable for bogs. But you don’t need a bog, a mountain or a compost pile, and I am proving you can be happy under sunlight challenges. In the South I am finding the 4-foot-tall and 4-foot-wide structure to be just perfect. Prior to spring shoots, the plants will be cut back to almost ground level.
If your garden center doesn’t take bribes I mentioned, use this time before spring to source your plants elsewhere, including online. A few years ago, I got some Summerific plants that were bareroot. I potted them up, and by planting season they looked like full-grown 2-gallon nursery plants. I promise you can do it too, if this is your only option.
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(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)
(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)
