Hibiscus, Watermelon Ruffles

Last spring, I should say winter, when I got my catalog, I found this beautiful Hibiscus picture. It was on sale so I decided to buy it. I think it was late April when it came. What a disappointment! What I unwrapped looked like somebody had glued 4 pencils to the end of a half inch diameter dowel and painted the whole thing gray. I was surprised and a little disappointed because I've been buying plant material from Jung's for many years and always had good luck with whatever I bought. I decided that I would put it in the pot I had reserved for it and see what would happen. I didn't expect much from that stick, but I waited the whole month of May and not a sign of life. I called Jung's and told them my Hibiscus was still hibernating. They told me to be patient and if nothing appears by the end of June to call them back. You guessed it, about the middle of June there appeared a small sprout in the middle of my pot. Soon it was not only one branch, but three! Those three branches began to grow and so I watered them with a good, high phosphorus fertilizer and watched the plant develop into a very pretty, dark green plant about 30 inches high and almost that wide. Now it was July and I'm seeing some tiny buds forming. It took a while but those buds kept growing and one day I looked on my patio and saw the prettiest set of triplets you could imagine! The catalog had said pink in the description, but these flowers were almost red! I later found out the name of the plant was Watermelon and that is an apt name for it. Apparently the 2026 catalog has a flower slightly different from mine because it's called Watermelon Ruffles. My plant's petals are single, but nevertheless gorgeous. Now I'm waiting for a new set of buds to form so I can see those pretty blossoms again! So the Jung's story of successes continues and I'm telling my friends to order theirs as soon as the 2026 catalog arrives in December or they'll miss out because these ruffled beauties will sell out in no time!