My Hibiscus, A Photo Gallery of my Favorite Flower

One of my all time favorite flowers is the Hibiscus. I remember when I was in sixth grade we moved to Hawaii and we had a Hibiscus Plant in our backyard. The one we had looked more like a shrub than a plant. It was huge and had tons of blossoms on it all of the time. This is where my love for the Hibiscus began. Hawaii was my favorite place to live and the Hibiscus gives me a reminder of my favorite time of life and where I considered my 'home' to be.

I have only had two Hibiscus plants since in my adult life. My first one I purchased for my job, a marina, when I was in Virginia. We had a huge planter and nothing to go in it. So while I was at Home Depot one day I came across what was called a "Japenese Hibiscus," that's what the tage said on it. I don't think it was one though because the blooms had huge petals and from my research Japenese Hibiscus have narrow petals and appearing spider like. This plant had a dark magenta center gradiating to a vert pale pink on the edges of the bloom. I wish I had a photo of this Hibiscus plant. I unfortunately never took a picture of it. I really regret not taking any shots of its beauty. I would've loved to share it with everyone. In a way I guess I do, I still hear stories from my former boss of customers raving over it's beautiful blooms today.

When I moved into my house in Georgia, I decided to get another Hibiscus. I searched high and low for another just like my first one but was unsuccessful in my new area. I could only find Hibiscus with red blooms that were cut into topiaries. I guess you could call this the "Standard Hibiscus." It's the one that comes to mind when someone first thinks of a Hibiscus. So, I decided to pick one up and also bought a big planter to put it in on my porch. Why I never thought to take pictures again is beyond me. I really wish I would have while it looked like a two ball topiary. It was really pretty in its orginal shape.

Over the next few months, I started noticing fewer and fewer blooms. Then I noticed daily the plant leaves looked "sad." They were droopy and drying out. I began drowning the planter in water everyday and every morning the soil would be dry as a bone. I began wondering if the planter was too small. Could the plant have grown that much in just a few months?

The plant finally stopped blooming, it lost it's topiary shape, and was starting to look like a mini shrub. I had to do something and the only thing that came to mind is that it needed more space. I had a perfect empty spot in my back yard for it on top of a hill. I dug a huge hole, soaked the area with water, added some fresh soil, and plopped my plant in. I drowned the plant in water everyday.

At first I thought I made a big mistake, nothing happened and the plant didn't change or look any different. Then one morning, about 2 weeks later, I was looking out of my kitchen window and saw a huge red bloom on top. It was a success! My Hibiscus took to it's new home and was coming back to life. I continue to water it every morning, unless it rains. My hibiscus is on it's way to becoming a bush now. I'm so glad I didn't give up.

I love the location of my plant, I see it every day from my kitchen window. And this time around I've been taking several pictures to show off it's beauty. I always loved photography and this has become my new favorite subject. I have taken several pictures of my awesome plants' blooms. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. One day we even had a little visitor. You'll have to view the pictures to see who it was.

Thanks for reading everyone! Let me know what you think of my Hibiscus gallery.