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Tropical Hibiscus Hybrids

Apart from our collection of wild hibiscus species we also cultivate several dozen modern tropical hibiscus hybrids. These have been bred on the Canary islands and at present these all new hybrids are available locally only. Our mother plants produce large single flowers with well developed, fully opening petals. Few have a brilliant monochrome color, whereas the majority display 2, 3 or even 4 color shades in a single flower. Last but not least, none of our selected breeding plants are grafted, but all are being cultivated on their own roots.
The original Hibiscus x rosa-sinensis only had the wild species Hibiscus cooperi and Hibiscus kaute as parents. Whereas the so called modern tropical hibiscus hybrids have been bred by crossing Hibiscus x rosa-sinensis with several other species from Hibiscus section Lilibiscus. Many of these hybrids show a bottleneck effect due to inbreeding over several generations and/or are genetically unfit due to interfering genes from multiple involved species. As a result many of these hybrids are horticulturally inferior with much deformed petals and/or are that weak that they need to be grafted for propagation purposes. For hybridizing we have chosen vigorous and healthy plants only. We also include the wild species Hibiscus cooperi in the selection 'Nasilai Pink', as well as Hibiscus arnottianus and Hibiscus waimeae as pollen donors. The latter two Hawaiian endemic species also have quite large, and above slightly perfumed white flowers, as well as an overall rather compact and very healthy growth habit. The aim is to add new genes to hybrids in order to improve their genepool and overall robustness.
Seedling plants from all our crosses will show a whole array of new color combinations, not a single one will be alike. Some may have flowers being close to one of the parents, yet most will be quite uniquely distinct. Thus said, and as in all hibiscus hybrids, colors are mostly unpredictable, and seed raised plants will never have the same color as their parent(s). Some may be rather pastel shaded, some may exhibit an even darker color than the parents, some may show a uniform color, while others will develop multiple color shades. Be it as it is, these will never be alike the mostly boring, seen-a-thousand-times hybrids you may usually find at your local garden store. And with some very, very good luck, some offsprings may even inherit the parfumed flowers from the male Hawaiian parent. However, the gene for fragrance development is recessive, i.e. normally plants with fragrant flowers will only appear in the F2 generation - which gives you some exciting opportunities to create your own hybrids.
You may find some"bargain" offers on several well known selling platforms, where packs with 50 or even 100 seeds from supposedly tropical hibiscus hybrids are offered at a ridiculously low price. Be aware that these are scams. These fraudulous sellers will not send you any tropical hibiscus seeds, but whatever seeds from other plants they may have handy, and sometimes dry debris only. Just do a reverse image search for the displayed photo(s) - almost all fraudulous sellers use eye-catching, yet "borrowed" photos from the web, without permission from the copyright owner, nor give they any credit to the real photographer. Tropical hibiscus produce very few seeds only. Most capsules may contain whatever between 1 to 10 seeds only, rarely more. Not ot mention that quite a lot of capsules are aborted before they even mature. In certain hybrids less than 10% of capsules will eventually reach maturity. And all these have to be carefully hand pollinated, and all crosses have to be recorded with scrutiny. Thus true tropical hibiscus seeds are always scarce and thus (subjectively) high priced. And especially our crosses with Hibiscus waimeae are simply unique and precious, as this species has not been used in hybridization on a larger level so far, and less than 10% of crosses are successful. This means that from 100 hand pollinated flowers only some 10 may form a capsule which may contain some seeds inside.
Under optimal growing conditions (some 25°C throughout the year and plants kept in a bright spot) plants grown from seeds may start to flower within 12 to 36 months.
The large pre-view photo shows the female pod parent, the male polen parent is displayed in the options section. All photos were taken from our own plants.
3 seeds per package.

On this page you will find all hibiscus hybrids and hibiscus species mother plants we use for crossing: Tropical Hibiscus Hybrids

(The first seeds will be released in October 2024. Stay tuned ...)