The Mutable Mallow

One of the poster horticultural children for fall flowering is the Chinese native, Hibiscus mutabilis. Because this plant has been shared so widely as a pass-along in deep south gardens, it picked up the common name, confederate mallow. The specific epithet name “mutabilis” was selected because many of the clones have flowers that emerge white, but age to pink on subsequent days.

Most forms typically start to flower for us about the time of our first frost, so we rarely have a long floral show. With a late first frost this year, the flowering show has been exceptional. When winter temperatures drop below 10 degrees, the trunks die to the ground, but in spring, they regrow quickly. In warmer climates where they don’t die back, they can easily reach 12′ to 15′ in height by the end of the growing season.

Below are a few of the seven forms we currently grow. There are fourteen named varieties in China, but to our knowledge, these don’t exist in the US yet.

Left to right, back to front are: a) Hibiscus ‘Tioga Party’, an early, heavy flowering giant; b) Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Plena’ emerges double white, and ages to double pink; c) Hibiscus ‘Alma’s Star’ emerges and remains double pink; front row; d) Hibiscus mutabilis un-named single white that changes to pink; e) Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Floraplena’, which emerges double light pink and remains pink; and f) Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Peony Pearl’, a new double pink cultivar closest to ‘Alma’s Star’. Not pictured is Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Nagoya White’, a single flowered form that flowers almost a month earlier, and remains white.

Hibiscus mutabilis flower forms

Below is our plant of Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Tioga Party’ in mid November this year.

Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Tioga Party’

3 thoughts on “The Mutable Mallow”

  1. Try crossing them, if you already haven’t with the H paramutabilis you used to carry. The white one crosses readily with the neighbors H syriacus to give intermediate progeny which appear to be fertile. H paramutabilis is hardy here in NY unlike mutabilis, alas I lost the Shanghai Red Eye to voles a couple of years ago but seedlings are growing nearby that I hope will turn out to be true and not the hybrid swarm with syriacus. If mutabilis would cross with paramutabilis you would get hardiness and earlier bloom from that most likely, making them useful over a wider growing area here.

    1. We’d love to, but we lost our H. paramutabilis during a particularly cold winter. Amazed to hear that it’s thriving in NY. I think ours died when we had 10 straight days that never got above freezing.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 20 MB. You can upload: image, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

Scroll to Top

Discover more from Juniper Level Botanic Garden

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading