Often called the Queen of the Tropics, Tropical Hibiscus will provide you with an excellent source of summer landscape color and is one of South Texas’ most popular tropical or sub-tropical flowering plants. With their bright showy flowers in many colors along with their glossy leaves tropical hibiscus will bloom from mid spring through fall. Although suited for more tropical regions this brilliant bloomer can grow to heights upwards of 15’ tall but most average 5’ to 6’ tall. You can expect the blooms to average 4” to 6” wide.
Tropical Hibiscus are tender plants that don’t like big temperature variations, most particularly temperatures that approach freezing. With a little strategic planning during the cooler months, hibiscus can weather our periodic cold snaps and their bloom cycle in the spring without missing a beat.

Hibiscus like sunny, well-drained places spot with some protection from the hot afternoon sun. Keep you plants evenly moist but avoid wet feet as their roots will rot if they don’t have adequate drainage. These plants will need regular feeding if you expect them to produce their showy blooms all summer long.

Hibiscus belong to the mallow family and are closely related to cotton, hollyhock, turks cap, mallows, shrub althea, confederate rose, and okra. Even in the older hibiscus varieties there is considerable variation in the size and texture of the foliage. Their colors also vary from white through pink, red, yellow, apricot, and orange. The form of their blooms generally is either singled or double.

Hibiscus are well suited to being grown in containers especially on patios, balconies or for poolside plantings.  Containerized plants can easily be moved to a protected spot when it gets cold outside.