Hibiscus x Summerific® 'French Vanilla' (Rose Mallow)

Summerific® 'French Vanilla' is a hardy hybrid Hibiscus cultivar that grows 3-4' tall and wide with a dense, rounded, shrub-like habit. Already known for its attractive, dinner plate-sized flowers, this Hibiscus selection lends an especially showy blossom among summer blooms, with flowers 7-8" in diameter in gorgeous shades of cream white and wind red in the center. Summerific® 'French Vanilla' typically blooms from mid summer to early fall, with mature plants opening more and more blooms throughout this window. Spectacular, dark green foliage with large leaves contrasts especially well against lighter colored flowers, and blooms take on yellower, creamier hues in northern latitudes, adding further appeal.

Since this cultivar reaches a consistent size time after time, 'French Vanilla' is an excellent choice for more formal garden spaces as well as for wetland border plantings, rain gardens, or as a specimen planting along ponds or streams where it will attract a number of pollinators, butterflies, and even hummingbirds. Although rose mallow is native to swampy areas, cultivars like those in the Summerific® line will also do very well in the home garden if kept consistently moist; like many rose mallow, Summerific® 'French Vanilla' grows best in full sun conditions with fertile soil, and if kept happy, will provide beautiful blooms all summer long.

Though 'French Vanilla' is a hybrid cultivar of Hibiscus, it is the resulting of several generations of cross-breeds between the species Hibiscus mosecheutos (native to Maryland) and Hibiscus coccineus (native to the American southeast as far north as Virginia).

(Photos courtesy of Proven Winners)