{"id":5272,"date":"2012-08-18T16:03:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T22:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=5272"},"modified":"2012-09-03T22:17:07","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T04:17:07","slug":"dinner-plate-hibiscus-adds-refreshing-splash-of-pink-to-sw-idaho-summer-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/dinner-plate-hibiscus-adds-refreshing-splash-of-pink-to-sw-idaho-summer-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinner Plate Hibiscus Adds Refreshing Splash of Pink to SW Idaho Summer Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"pink<\/a>
pink dinner plate hibiscus flower in mid August in Idaho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of my favorite pieces of garden advice is to plant for blooms throughout the growing season, not just during the spring rush.<\/strong> So, my yard may never be chock full of blooms, and it is likely that there is always something unsightly due to dying back, but there is always a burst of color somewhere waiting to greet my eye. In August, this includes my stunning pink dinner plate hibiscus!<\/em><\/p>\n

This hibiscus is one of the very last perennials to break the ground in spring, waiting until the weather is warm, about the first of June.<\/strong> \u00a0Every year I find myself wondering if it will come up. \u00a0And because it happens to be planted where I get a lot of volunteer larkspur in early spring, I try to keep watch and clear those plants from around it.<\/p>\n

My plant is about five years old and displays a succession of blooms that sometimes weigh the stems down. \u00a0Other than the petals getting chewed on if they hang all the way to the dirt, I have never had any insect or disease problems with it.<\/strong> \u00a0It resides in the front yard, where the flower bed is watered by the lawn sprinkler system several times a week. \u00a0But I’ve done next to nothing to amend the soil there, being impatient to plant after just taking time to scrape away the red lava rock. \u00a0It may have gotten one layer of compost a couple of years ago. \u00a0It is possible the soil acidity is affected by the spruce tree needles. \u00a0The hibiscus is roughly 5 feet out of the spruce tree’s drip line.<\/p>\n

The photo below gives a reference for seeing what size the blooms really are:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dinner<\/a>
dinner plate hibiscus size comparison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This close-up of the center shows that even the pistils and stamen are worth admiring. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The flower’s large size would make it an excellent choice for dissection<\/a>, easy on hands and eyes.<\/p>\n

\"dinner<\/a>
dinner plate hibiscus stamen and pistils<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While many plants are heat stressed by this time of year, the dinner plate hibiscus defies the heat on a grand scale, flaunting its liquid pink like spiked punch at the garden party.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite pieces of garden advice is to plant for blooms throughout the growing season, not just during the spring rush. So, my yard may never be chock full of blooms, and it is likely that there is always something unsightly due to dying back, but there is always a burst of color […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}