Hibiscus moscheutos Raijin- Rose mallow

This new Hibiscus moscheutos Raijin® 'AKATA88', with its compact habit and long-lasting summer flowering, is an excellent variety of marsh hibiscus for decorating terraces and balconies. This pretty perennial plant for waterlogged soils flowers until late summer, displaying its beautiful, slightly crumpled cup-shaped flowers in an extremely bright, magnificent pure red. It should be planted in handsome containers kept very moist throughout the growing season. Also very decorative at the edge of a pond.

Hibiscus moscheutos, also known as Hibiscus palustris, is a herbaceous plant with a woody trunk from the mallow family, a cousin of mallows and hollyhocks. It is native to the marshes of the southern United States, where it sometimes reaches 2 m in height. In our climate, this swamp rose mallow sends up straight, upright stems each year, quite late in spring, forming a spreading bush. Horticulturists have discovered this astonishing botanical species and, through cross-breeding with other species, have obtained many less bulky and very interesting cultivars, show flowers with varied colours, and increased floribundity.

The hybrid variety 'Raijin' was recently selected in Japan by Yukio Kurabayashi for its particularly branching, very compact habit. It inherited the remarkable scarlet red colour of its flowering from its other parent, Hibiscus coccineus. The plant forms a bushy, well-branched clump that will quickly reach about 50 cm in all directions in one season. After 10 years, in a very large pot, it may reach 1 m in all directions. This cultivar produces many single, 12 to 15 cm wide flowers with slightly crumpled petals. The pure red flower is marked with dark red in its centre and has a column of white stamens and pistils. The flowers are short-lived, but are constantly renewed from July to September-October if one prunes the plant in August. The stems are green and downy. The abundant leaves are divided into 3 to 5 spade-shaped, fresh green lobes, giving the foliage a very ornamental appearance throughout the growing period.

Marsh Hibiscus are spectacular plants that cannot be ignored: one either hates their huge flowers because they are sometimes difficult to integrate into a natural setting, or one adores them, for the same reasons that will see them adopted in a contemporary-style garden, or in a small exotic scene cleverly organised around a small pond on the terrace. This superb plant may suffer further north and in the mountains, even though its hardiness can reach -15°C when the crown is dry in winter. 
All Marsh Hibiscus give another dimension to waterlogged beds, or to the bank of a pond, accompanied by cannas, white arum lily or Papyrus. The 'Raijin' selection is very bushy and covered in fewer oversized flowers. It will be adored by those who love flowers but do not have a garden, as they can bring a small tropical touch to the balcony.