Hibiscus moscheutos Jolly Heart - Swamp Rose Mallow

Hibiscus moscheutos 'Jolly Heart' is a compact variety of marsh hibiscus that stands out with its enormous pure white flowers with a scarlet red heart that protrude from its mass of beautiful cut leaves, purple to chocolate in colour. Fast-growing, this perennial disappears in winter and regrows from its stump every spring to develop, in a very short time, a rounded, dense bush of about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in all directions. From July to September, large cup-shaped flowers with pleated petals regularly renew themselves without interruption, as long as the soil is kept moist at its base. Its ornamental dark foliage and its young anise-green shoots extend its ornamental appeal in spring and autumn. Its compact shape allows it to be grown in pots for decorating a terrace or balcony. It is hardy down to -15 °C (5 °F) and likes warm, sunny locations and rich, well-drained and moist to wet soil. Use it to create temporary hedges with other marsh mallows or a strongly coloured background at the edge of a pond, or plant them in several pots to punctuate the surroundings of a terrace.

Hibiscus moscheutos, also known as Hibiscus palustris, is a herbaceous plant with a woody stump from the mallow family, cousin to hollyhocks and rosa rugosa. It is native to the marshes of the southern United States, where it can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height. Horticulturists have taken this remarkable botanical species and obtained many very interesting cultivars, showing larger flowers, various colours, and increased floribundity.

The 'Jolly Heart' variety is a creation of Pépinière Fleurs du Sud and belongs to the Carousel range, which brings together hardy, compact, and floriferous marsh hibiscus varieties, with dark purple foliage that particularly highlights their immense single flowers. It forms a beautiful bushy clump that will quickly reach 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) in height and 1 m (3 ft 4 in) in width in one season. This cultivar stands out for its pure white flowers, enhanced by a bright red to dark red heart that infiltrates the folds of its petals and a pistil bristling with cream-coloured stamens. They bloom into large, 20 cm (7.9 in) wide single flowers with slightly crinkled petals. They are short-lived, but constantly renew themselves from July to September. The young shoots are anise-green with reddish-purple veins, standing out in contrast to its dark foliage. The large leaves are divided into three narrow and pointed lobes with widely crenate margins, marbled with purple to chocolate and bright green, remaining very ornamental throughout the growing season.

Marsh hibiscus plants are spectacular and cannot be ignored: some people dislike their huge flowers because they can be difficult to integrate into a natural setting, while others adore them for the same reasons that make them fit well into a contemporary-style garden or in a carefully organised exotic scene around a water feature or on a terrace. This superb plant can tolerate temperatures down to -15 °C (5 °F). All marsh hibiscus plants bring another dimension to waterlogged flower beds or the edge of a pond, accompanied by a Gunnera, cannas, Ethiopian arum, Rodgersia Chocolate Wings or Colocasia esculenta.