Evening star., 1925-07-19
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,UeH.

A flower inches in diameter
is unusual enough in any back yard
to make visitors sit up and take no.
tice.'' as the saying goes.
Larger than the sunf1ower. and ut
terly transcending it in beauty. the
blossom of the Hibiscus, or Rosemal-
low. as it is sometimes called, makes
a veritable bouquet by itself.
This hard marsh plant, to be seen
in profusion in Southern States, may
be had in red, dark pink or rose, light
pink, and white.
Despite it's huge size, which would
warrant il being called monstrosa, :"
a favorite descriptive term of the seed
men. the Hibiscus is q strikingly deli
cate flower of the Hollyhock order.
The Hollyhock. as a matter OF fact.
is its sister plant, the other members
OF this family cultivated in gardens
being the Althea. or Rose OF Sharon.
and Lavatera, the latter resembling
miniature Hollyhock.
The Hibiscus takes the cake" in
size, retaining the vivid hues and cup
like flowers of its relatives. While it
NAV be grown from seed. the best
way for the home gardener to possess
IT is 10 buy the roots.
These are comparatively cheap. and.
planted in early Spring, commence to
bloom about this time of the year.
They are supposed to bloom all Sum
mer. Whether they will or will not
remains TO be seen.
Cement like clay, drought and bugs
failed TO stop the Hibiscus. which sent
up its shoots, then leafed out, finally
sending forth its curious buds. some
what resembling spiders in appear.
ance.
This plant is so hardy, evidently
that inroads OF insects on its gray
green, velvety leaves were but ar in
cident in its life. Where it grows in
profusion il has noS one to spray it
tenderly. but gets along the best it
can.
The heart of every Hibiscus responds
to that iron string: SelfReliance.
1T was several days ago that the
first bud took definite form. A mass of
bright watermelon pink showed from
the green base. The bud appeared as
if some one had taken a square foot
or so of pink silk nd twisted it into
a mass in order to cram 1t into the
space allotted.
1T ought to be out tomorrow. we
said. hardly thinking that it would.
The next morning. looking into the
garden with sleepy eyes. we saw the
biggest flower of our lives.
The Hibiscus was OUT
Know We. all and sundry. that this
is one of the adventures of the garden
There will be other blooms. but never
one like that first one. that glowed
there in the sunshine of the hot Sum
mer morning.
One could scarcely believe his eyes,
as he looked at the tremendous bloom
Only recently we had read an article
in a ma ga zine describing the huge
4-inch blossoms of the RoSemallow.'
Here was our first and only Hibis
Gus nearly doubling that measure
ment, If we had not been quite aware
of the fact that we had really nothing
to do with the growth of the plant,
we might have been proud OF our abil-
ity as a gardener.
Many swell up over less.
Application of a yard stick to the big
flower showed it to be exactly Z
tip of petal. The petals of this bright
rose specimen did not meet at the
edges. as blooms Of the light pink ones
were destined to do.
The latter plant displayed three
flowers one morning, of an exquisite
light pink color. shading darker in
the throat. These blossoms were of
perfect cup-shape, somewhat resem-
bling a Hollyhock, but deeper. as well
as very much larger.
These blossoms were about inches
in diameter. quite large enough
to create mild seAaternation among