Native Hibiscus

Knowing that the temperature was going to be in the thirties today, I collected a pile of cutting material to deal with this afternoon. An inside job, where I take over the kitchen table and make a huge mess.

There was some nice material on two varieties of Alyogyne huegelii (native hibiscus), a pretty white flowered form and a ruffled purple form known as ‘West Coast Gem’. Somewhere in the nursery is a pink form also, and my neighbour has a lovely mauve form which flowers prolifically. It also overhangs our fence, which is very convenient for me.

Another native hibiscus is Alyogyne hakeifolia. The flowers do not open fully out, and have a prominent stamen inside, and often a contrasting colour. There are a number of colour forms. ‘Mellissa Ann’ is a bright purply pink, there are also cream, yellow and various mauve/blue colours.

The thing that they all have in common is their hardiness, apart from having pretty flowers. They tolerate lime, drought and neglect. They need to be pruned to keep them bushy. Cuttings are sometimes touchy as they don’t like to be too wet. Once potted on though, they grow like rockets!