The first morning you see a new flower blooming is always exciting. Today, in my garden, it the hibiscus' turn. I have several hardy varieties and even more tropical, which live a rather dreary existence inside over the winter before they're liberated each spring and placed outside on the patio.
For those of you who're knowledgeable - and crazy - about hibiscus, you know that the hardy ones look dried up and dead till mid-summer and then almost every day you see dramatic growth. I love these flowers because of that drama. A lot of gardeners dig them up and toss them away because they look so dreary, not understanding that this is a requisite phase for being glamorous later on.
This photo is of 'Plum Crazy,' which isn't the biggest hardy hibiscus bloom I'll have this summer ... can't wait for the "dinner plates" ... but it's the first. The petals feel like delicate crepe paper and last only a day. If you deadhead these - and they're so huge, it almost feels like murder! - you'll be rewarded with another giant one in a few days.
In the meantime, the growing bud is a thing of beauty, too. I hope I never get so old and jaded that I can't marvel at and appreciate the phases of growth of these incredible plants. It is perpetually amazing to me how intricate and lovely they are. And while I've never seen them blooming up a storm in the tropics, I hope to someday. Perhaps I have seen them, without knowing it, in a previous level of consciousness - B.G., Before Gardening.
Then there's this pretty thing, below, the first bloom on one of the tropicals that lived indoors all winter. Every one of its peers has flowered already in orange, red and apricot, but this guy was behind the pack. He looked ragged and unhappy for the longest time, but in the last couple of weeks, his leaves came out in full and turned a healthy shade of green and he budded right up.
This morning, victory.
