That is a very good question. The nursery folks said it was a flowering maple, but the flowers sure look like hibiscus, don't they. When I held the plant up to one of the large hibiscus cultivars, the leaves are somewhat different; and you can't really see it on my photo, but the flowers on my plant do have that nodding flowering maple quality. So I'll take the nursery's word for it for now.
Most of the flowering maples I've ever seen are really leggy and leafy and frankly not all that attractive except for maybe the variegated ones, so I'm hoping that, whatever this is, it remains smallish and manageable. And I just love that ketchup red color; the photo doesn't do it justice.
I understand that the Victorians used to have a special fondness for these...must have been a conservatory plant, though; I can't imagine them in some dark, drafty parlor corner.
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Isn't the big red flower an hibiscus?
That is a very good question. The nursery folks said it was a flowering maple, but the flowers sure look like hibiscus, don't they. When I held the plant up to one of the large hibiscus cultivars, the leaves are somewhat different; and you can't really see it on my photo, but the flowers on my plant do have that nodding flowering maple quality. So I'll take the nursery's word for it for now.
Most of the flowering maples I've ever seen are really leggy and leafy and frankly not all that attractive except for maybe the variegated ones, so I'm hoping that, whatever this is, it remains smallish and manageable. And I just love that ketchup red color; the photo doesn't do it justice.
Pretty!
Hibiscus flowers have the petals a bit more seperated in my experience. But, yes, they do look a lot like that!
Ah - that's an Abutilon, then! I've never heard the name "flowering maple" before, and didn't make the connection.
I actually a couple of those at one time - cuttings from the local arboretum where I was an assistant gardener one year.
I understand that the Victorians used to have a special fondness for these...must have been a conservatory plant, though; I can't imagine them in some dark, drafty parlor corner.
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