Celebrating summerific® week

This week, Walters Gardens and Proven Winners are celebrating a new promotion called Summerific® Week, so we couldn’t help but use this as an opportunity to talk about some of our favorite varieties from this outstanding collection of perennial Hibiscus. Year after year, Hibiscus is one of our most popular perennial line items; we are usually sold out before the first bare root liners even start to break dormancy in the spring. So although it is not something we typically need to convince customers to buy, it’s still a great collection of plants that we are excited to talk about.

I think one of the reasons Hibiscus are so popular is that they are just starting to bud and bloom when a lot of the late spring and summer-blooming crops have started to wind down, and before the fall-blooming perennials and grasses have hit their prime. It has perpetually been our goal to increase our availability of blooming perennials at this time of the year, and the Hibiscus is such an easy choice for adding color to the garden during these Dog Days of Summer.

I think it’s fair to say that the flowers of any of the Summerific® Hibiscus will stop most people in their tracks. Our most popular of the Summerific® series is ‘Berry Awesome’, and for good reason. The enormous, clear, lavender-pink flowers look great against the backdrop of dark green foliage. Another of our favorites is ‘Cranberry Crush’, a classic choice with clean green foliage and scarlet flowers. I especially like ‘Cranberry Crush’ because if its consistent form. Some varieties require more pinching to create a consistent look, but ‘Cranberry Crush’ tends to have a more naturally compact and tidy appearance. This year, we tried the new variety ‘Evening Rose’, and I was stunned by the hot pink flowers and attractive dark foliage. We have also grown ‘Cherry Choco Latte’ since it was first introduced a few years ago. I have always personally thought the buds of ‘Cherry Choco Latte’ are nearly as attractive as the flowers. ‘Cherry Choco Latte’ tends to be a little wilder in its growth habit, but the flowers make up for it. Even though it’s technically Summerific® Week, I couldn’t talk about perennial Hibiscus and not mention ‘Midnight Marvel’. This non-Proven Winner is always our most demanded Hibiscus. The combination of true red flowers against the dark foliage is irresistible. This year, the ‘Midnight Marvel’ were our first Hibiscus to start putting on growth, and they were so vigorous they could have used a little extra space.

I always get excited when growth starts to appear in the Hibiscus pots, and I am always amazed at how fast they grow. They can put on inches of growth in just a few days. The only thing I dislike about growing them is that they are usually gone before I get a chance to see the flowers. Budded and blooming perennial Hibiscus are a welcome sight this time of the year, and should make a great impulse-buy option for customers.