Hibiscus syriacus ‘Red Heart’ is blooming in the nursery. This is the first year we’ve offered this shrub and I was inspired to grow it because of two people. Marcia Tatroe wrote about it for Colorado Gardener last summer, and praised its heat tolerance. In a year when record high temperatures are being set right and left, growing a shrub that can take the heat makes a lots of sense! It blooms in mid-summer and doesn’t mind temperatures that hover in the 90s or above. I worried about its winter hardiness because I don’t see them at my elevation, but in September last year one of our Rye customers brought a beautiful bouquet of hibiscus to show me how well they do. Denise gardens at 7200′ and she has had many years of success with both ‘Red Heart’ and with Hibiscus moscheutos, the hardy perennial hibiscus. Both of these are late to leaf out in the spring, so don’t take their slowness to mean death–they’re just waiting for warm temperatures to put on new growth. They are rated hardy to Zone 5, and Denise has had them survive -25 F. in winters past.
