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Splendid Hibiscus Splendens Pink Hollyhock Seeds
Packet of 20+ rarely available home grown seeds!
Alrighty, your probably thinking why does he say its “rarely” when Hibiscus splendens is a super wide spread hibiscus native to the whole east coast of Australia, and its now even become quite common all over the world? It grows fine anywhere that isn’t frozen solid and you can easily and cheaply buy really nice looking “Native*#” Hibiscus plants at major nurseries and big box garden centres everywhere!
All true, and if you keep reading I promise I will eventually get to the point.
A couple native Hibiscus planted in poor barren rocky soil are a real asset because all year round they are harvesting the sun and turning it into a thick layer of leaf mulch underneath, improving soil , providing habitat, adding moisture absorption ability, preventing erosion etc. At the same time they are pumping out heaps of pollen for bees, beetles, flower buds for the sugar gliders and birds. I eat a heap of flowers as I’m cruising around the scrub too.
This fella’s a really great option as a pioneer in poor degraded soils, and it’s also suuuper popular for hybridization all around the world due to that incredible hardiness and huge flower(Told its biggest hibiscus flower in world but I couldn’t find a reference?). None of that is bad, but at the same time I reckon it’s kind of a huge massive big deal if the number 1 main reason you are buying and planting it, is purely revegetation. The main aim being restoring the land to what once was!
Just because the plant label says “native” , doesn’t mean that that’s the actual plant the local bush is missing. Black Russian, Yellow Pear and Brain tomato are all technically tomatoes, but they are also all completely different plants, and to insist they are the same thing or that it doesn’t matter would be silly. Surely those major obvious differences are kind of a big deal?
Don’t get me wrong, if you just want pretty trees that’s absolutely fine and I totally support it. I grow heaps of purely ornamental plants and if you like the look of any particular Hibiscus species or cultivar I say go for it! I’m even happy to sell you a heap of different ones HERE.
The only bit that rubs me the wrong way is that very often “plants are awesome” isn’t the marketing used to sell them. It’s most often implying that the modern man-made hybrids or freaky selections and grown out “sports” they are all selling, are the same plant that us humans chopped down. Buy them, and the local critters are gonna reeeaaally like what your doing. This is then heavily reinforced by the well-meaning sales staff.
The local wildlife may like the fancy new fella, better than nothing for sure, better than most is even highly likely! But if you just stop and think about it for a second, they probably won’t like it as much as the one they had.
Gotta remember they evolved right beside that undomesticated wild fella for many 100,000’s of years, where as most of the new fancy ones were invented by us, with the sole aim of pretty. They are “native”, that bits completely true, but most still didn’t even exist 20years ago…
If you have made a fancy new hybrid or have propagated a weird sport that you reckon is awesome, then I reckon that’s awesome too! I try to do it myself from time to time and if I personally ever have a win worthy of selling, I will be making those CHANGES to what nature provided me, as the selling point. I won’t be accidentally on purpose misleading folks or implying they are great for bush restoration cos doing that would make me feel kinda gross.
This particular wild undomesticated form of Hibiscus splendens I am selling here grows huge like a Christmas tree and out in the scrub I know of a couple that are easy 9m tall leaning along the edges of plantation pine and thick forest . At home they generally max out at about 3-5meters(easy to prune smaller but I just let them go) and when they are in flower they look amazing!
They have large light green furry leaves, a spiky trunk when small to help slow down the kangaroos and wallabies who will eat the leaves and chew the trunk when the grass dries off winter or in drought. After it has flowered the seed pods contain lots of little irritating hairs to minimize insect attack and there are still a huge range of beetles that eat them regardless.
At every single stage of its life there is something trying to eat it(including me cos I’m constantly munching the flowers) but it just powers on regardless providing a real benefit to the surrounding area, as well as all the critters who live there too.
They germinate really easily surface sown in a nice sandy well draining soil mix. For me its normally 2-6weeks ~60% come up, then the rest is staggered. They do that on purpose cos out in the bush that means some will always survive even if local conditions are short-term pretty grim.
Oh yeah, it also grows really well from cuttings and when I had a bodgy crack all I did was lop a bit off about half a metre long, remove all leaves, poke half in the ground at a 45 degree angle, sit a bucket over the top to stop the critters pulling it out and to trap some humidity. Came back in a month and pulled all the buckets off.
Most had lots of little bleached side shoots that will soon got burnt off in the harsh sun, but they also had nice strong roots. I had ~50% survive(including one I actually planted upside down) and they all grew big and flowered by the following year. Considering the crappy soil, drought conditions and complete lack of tlc it was a great result.
Super hardy Aussie pioneer, totally drought-tolerant, flood-tolerant, even fire-tolerant bouncing back really quick as long as it’s a fast pass. Has massive pink flowers a little bit smaller than a dinner plate and to me they kind of smell like rose-water and biscuits?
I love it and I reckon it’s awesome needing absolutely no improvement at all!
If you do too then now’s your chance to buy some seeds.
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
