Friday, October 13, 2006
GOOD GRIEF! My heart pounded, my palms dripped sweat, my gut tightened in anticipation, my scalp crawled, tiny hairs stood up on the back of my neck ... OK, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but I was definitely a bit tentative. Don't get me wrong - house plants, including tropicals, are no stranger to me. I grow over a hundred plants indoors (not a greenhouse, but in my living quarters) including snake plants, spider plants (also the new Fire Flash spider and curly spider), dracaenas, hawthorias, succulents, ledebourias, streptocarpus, Chinese Evergreen, Croton, palms, maranta, Peace Lily, Syngoniums, hoya, epiphyllum, carnivorous, nepenthes, philos, pothos, Goldfish, azaleas, Staghorn fern, ZZ plant, rhizo begonia, wax begonias, bromeliads, not to mention orchids, which I have over 40 of. And I've been growing plants for over 30 years.
But never, ever a hibiscus. I had dreamed, fantasized about owning one for years. But never quite had the nerve. They are fussy, warned posters on houseplant message boards. "Temperamental, not the easiest to grow indoors," all kinds of discouraging remarks regarding these exotic beauties with huge blooms - sometimes over 6" across! Also, I have a thing for small plants, and most hibiscus are not exactly small growers. So I had reluctantly talked myself out of owning one. More out of fear of it dying and breaking my heart than anything else. I've had my share of losing plants that I'd long yearned for, and I wasn't about to invite disaster again.
But yesterday in Home Depot, checking out the plants like I do nearly every time I go into town, were quite a few plants in 6 inch pots, the plants themselves about 10 inches high and about the same width. Glossy, dark green foliage, with a few buds peaking out here and there. Thinking they might be gardenias or even azaleas, I looked at the tag. OH NO! The generic label read "Hibiscus," and that was it. No cultivar, no hybrid name. . . nothing. Just like those generic Tropical Plant tags you see on so many plants that come from growers who think it doesn't matter to you what kind of plant it is.
Well, by now I knew more than I did before, which isn't saying much at all. I knew that, since it was inside with the houseplants, and not OUTSIDE with landscape plants, that it must be a tropical hibiscus, in other words, a rosa-sinensis. That was good - tropicals like the warmth of a human dwelling place. Or should I say that was bad? Bad because I honestly did not want to take this plant home. So I tried desperately to find something about it that I didn't like, and thus feel complacent about walking out of there less one cute hibiscus. But alas, there was nothing NOT to like. It was the right size (and from what I've read you can more or less keep them to the size you want by pruning the foliage and roots to your specifications). It looked so darn healthy and happy, and even sported little buds, enticing me to wonder what the blooms would eventually look like. What color would they be? How big? The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the plant is not variegated, and I've got the biggest fetish for variegated foliage you could ever imagine. But the charm of this little guy made his lack of variegation pale in comparion (no pun intended).
So by now you have guessed correctly, I'm assuming. I brought him home, and immediately began to read up on tropical hibiscus on the web. I hope its not fated to the same thing my gift mum was - it dried up and died promptly (within three days) of receiving it, and no matter what I did made any difference at all. Yes, I'm in awe of my first hibiscus, exuberant and overjoyed with its presence, and I sure hope the buds don't all drop off because its stressed by being moved, as this is a warning often found when researching the plant. What shame that would be - to have it die and never even know what kind or color of blooms it has? Oh boy . . . what have I gotten myself into?
But never, ever a hibiscus. I had dreamed, fantasized about owning one for years. But never quite had the nerve. They are fussy, warned posters on houseplant message boards. "Temperamental, not the easiest to grow indoors," all kinds of discouraging remarks regarding these exotic beauties with huge blooms - sometimes over 6" across! Also, I have a thing for small plants, and most hibiscus are not exactly small growers. So I had reluctantly talked myself out of owning one. More out of fear of it dying and breaking my heart than anything else. I've had my share of losing plants that I'd long yearned for, and I wasn't about to invite disaster again.
But yesterday in Home Depot, checking out the plants like I do nearly every time I go into town, were quite a few plants in 6 inch pots, the plants themselves about 10 inches high and about the same width. Glossy, dark green foliage, with a few buds peaking out here and there. Thinking they might be gardenias or even azaleas, I looked at the tag. OH NO! The generic label read "Hibiscus," and that was it. No cultivar, no hybrid name. . . nothing. Just like those generic Tropical Plant tags you see on so many plants that come from growers who think it doesn't matter to you what kind of plant it is.
Well, by now I knew more than I did before, which isn't saying much at all. I knew that, since it was inside with the houseplants, and not OUTSIDE with landscape plants, that it must be a tropical hibiscus, in other words, a rosa-sinensis. That was good - tropicals like the warmth of a human dwelling place. Or should I say that was bad? Bad because I honestly did not want to take this plant home. So I tried desperately to find something about it that I didn't like, and thus feel complacent about walking out of there less one cute hibiscus. But alas, there was nothing NOT to like. It was the right size (and from what I've read you can more or less keep them to the size you want by pruning the foliage and roots to your specifications). It looked so darn healthy and happy, and even sported little buds, enticing me to wonder what the blooms would eventually look like. What color would they be? How big? The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the plant is not variegated, and I've got the biggest fetish for variegated foliage you could ever imagine. But the charm of this little guy made his lack of variegation pale in comparion (no pun intended).
So by now you have guessed correctly, I'm assuming. I brought him home, and immediately began to read up on tropical hibiscus on the web. I hope its not fated to the same thing my gift mum was - it dried up and died promptly (within three days) of receiving it, and no matter what I did made any difference at all. Yes, I'm in awe of my first hibiscus, exuberant and overjoyed with its presence, and I sure hope the buds don't all drop off because its stressed by being moved, as this is a warning often found when researching the plant. What shame that would be - to have it die and never even know what kind or color of blooms it has? Oh boy . . . what have I gotten myself into?
