A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Shrubs and Trees Hibiscus rosa-sinensis x Hibiscus syriacus ?

Can a Garden Hibiscus (aka rose Of Sharon) hybridize with a Chinese Hibiscus (the ones commonly sold as short plants with huge, red flowers) If they can do you know where I can find pictures of them?

Both species are in my neighborhood and bloom around the same time, and since rose of sharon have lots of pollen could they possibly cross pollinate a Hibiscus planted very close to the rose of sharon?

Anyone know?

Found this..apparently he is trying to do it..never got a chance to read all the article though...

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/heroes/mcfadden/mcfadden.html

I have not found where they are crossbred at all. My books say that even grafting of the two types are not very viable. It would be quite cool though.

I'm new here and I want to say that Sam Mcfadden did.
It is called "White Angel" Althea.

What he says in that article got me to experiment with
them as well. The results are not that dramatic on the
first try. I think one of the seed pods take out
something like 50 or so pollinated. Use Rosa-Sinensis
as the pollen parent and syriacus as the mother and a
piece of a straw to prevent pollen contamination/self
pollination.

Here is one my first experiments...it isn't dramatic.
The flowers on it came out pink (white mother) and
more opened up (mother has trumpet shaped wild flower type),
also dwarfed as the flowers are barely bigger than my
finger tip. If it is not sterile I'll breed back with
the pollen parent again and see what comes.





This next photo is this plant's sister seedling. It came out all weird because I soaked this seed in Colchicine. It came from the same seed pod as the above.

That's still really cool it works! I imagine if you breed a Yellow sinensis to a Red syriacus, you might be able to get orange flowers? rose of sharon dont currently come in yellow, so if you could hybridize those that would be truly amazing!

The pollen parent was yellow. I think perhaps trying to take it several generations might help. Mcfadden has done this for years. This plant might also make it easier as it is a hybrid, or harder if it is sterile. Yellow or something like that is what I'm aiming for.

I'm also working with mutagens (bad stuff) on them to see if that helps to get more variety.

Pollen Parent


The seed mother was just a wild type white with a red center, kinda trumpet shaped but, takes pollen easier than that of doubles and other specialty type.

In the areas in which I am most familiar, the report titled “Dr. Sam McFadden” by Jerry Parsons contains errors. I am researching heirloom hardy Hibiscus and hardy yellow Hibiscus. The Hibiscus cultivar incorrectly identified as “Annie J. Henning” is Hibiscus “Annie J. Hemming” (PP835), also known as the Hemming Red, by Ernest Hemming, is still being commercially propagated via cloning by Michael Hemming, Ernest and Annie’s grandson. Ernest Hemming created Meehan’s Mallow Marvels in the early 1900’s and the Annie J. was the first Hibiscus, of any type, awarded a US Plant Patten in 1949. The Annie J. Hemming may be the oldest surviving heirloom Hibiscus in existence which can still be accurately identified. Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming can be ordered from http://www.easternshorenurseries.com/, but they only ship bare-root in the spring while the Hibiscus is still dormant. This is not really a commercial product but a living memorial to Ernest and Annie Hemming by their family.

HYBRID MALLOW PLANT
http://www.google.com/patents/USPP835

So why am I so interested in Hibiscus Annie J. Hemming? Ernest Hemming was working on a hardy double and he was almost successful.

One of the problems with Meehan’s Mallow Marvels was they were propagated by seeds, much as the Hibiscus Luna Series is done today. In this strategy, two inbreed lines are maintained, and then crossed to produce the F1 hybrids which are sold commercially. Thomas Meehan’s sons, who controlled the company, opted for seed propagation, which was then faster and cheaper, while Ernest Hemming wanted to use cloning. This is one of the main reasons why Meehan’s Mallow Marvels were lost to the hobby and the Annie J. Hemming is the only surviving example, which was Ernest Hemming last effort to do it correctly.

My Emails to Dr. Parsons, reporting the problem, have gone unanswered. Other creative typos can be found here: http://www.plantanswers.com/hibiscus.htm. I am not saying that Dr. Parsons’ reports are factually inaccurate but they need the review of a good editor, as do most of my posts as well.

Mike

Have you consider using Hibiscus syriacus Lil' Kim which is described as a fertile polyploidy, resulting from a stem mutation on an unidentified Hibiscus syriacus. The diploid chromosome count for Hibiscus syriacus is 2N=80 and Hibiscus Lil’ Kim is clearly not a triploid 3N=120 or a tetraploid 4N=160, which means that Lil’ Kim could have a chromosome number of 6N=240 or 8N=320. Unfortunately the US Plant Patent doesn’t identify the nature of the parent plant which could be a triploid or a tetraploid.

Hibiscus plant named ‘Antong Two'
http://www.google.com/patents/USPP19547

“Parentage: Naturally-occurring branch mutation of an unnamed selection of Hibiscus syriacus, not patented.”

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis are polyploidy by nature and you may have more opportunities for chromosome alignment by using Hibiscus Lil’ Kim.

In my own research, I am using two wild Hibiscus syriacus and Hibiscus Lil’ Kim to hybridize with two yellow African Hibiscus species from the Drakensberg zone 7 region near the tip of South Africa.

Hibiscus calyphyllus (growing this Hibiscus for 1 year, Chromosome Count 2N=80).
http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=2585-22

Hibiscus pusillus (Received seeds from a seller in Germany, Chromosome Count n/a).
http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=2585-79

Hibiscus microcarpus (Still hunting for seeds, Chromsome Count n/a).
http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=2585-65

South African Species listing: Hibiscus
http://redlist.sanbi.org/genus.php?genus=2585

I am using this zone Map to hunt hardy Hibiscus in South Africa.

Brandt Maxwell's (bmaxwell@san.rr.com) Climate zone Map of Africa
http://www.oocities.org/westcornersville/africazones.gif

I have an overlay animation for the above zone Map, which aligns with the South African species maps, so send me an Email if you want a copy.

Read my Wikipedia post Hibiscus calyphyllus and note the comment on chromosome counts.

Hibiscus calyphyllus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_calyphyllus

There may be three routes to producing a hardy yellow Hibiscus.

1. Hybridize Hibiscus syriacus with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.
2. Hybridize Hibiscus syriacus with Hibiscus calyphyllus or H. pusillus.
3. Recover the long lost North American native Hibiscus incanus.

As I was editing this post, I discovered that Plant Delights just reintroduced Hibiscus incanus after an absence of 125 years. The only problem is that flowers don’t look straw yellow.

Hibiscus moscheutos var. incanus (Hairy Large Flowered Perennial Mallow)
http://www.plantdelights.com/Hibiscus-moscheutos-var-incanus/productinfo/9630/

Mike

Wow I think I just lost my title. I could barely follow this topic. Interesting stuff though. I do like the yellow flower.

Wow the yellow is awesome.
Allow me to show my New Red Hibiscus I grew from some seed swappers seeds .
Dont know the name .
maybe Polish popular..LOL