The Garden Guy would like to officially declare 2022 ‘Encore Year of the Hardy Hibiscus.’ I don’t know how the National Garden Bureau judges the success of any particular year’s celebration, but I am feeling Summerific French Vanilla helped Old Norm hit it out of the park in 2021.
One of my best friends from Louisiana had been visiting southern trial locations and excitedly sent me a photo of Summerific French Vanilla from Mississippi State University’s trials at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs. Though French Vanilla made its debut in 2021 I was lucky enough to get one. Those first blooms showed me why he was so excited.
It wasn’t hard to see a little of that native DNA but this is a far cry from the hibiscus in the Mississippi ditch. French Vanilla is the perfect name for this new flower in the Summerific series. Creamy with an exquisite ruffled wavy texture and burgundy eye, is a floral portrait of unbelievable beauty. I dare say there is not a white tropical hibiscus that can match its elegance.
