hibiscus – The Gardening Blog

I just went and counted all the trees on the property – there are 33! 33 trees on a small to medium sized property … no wonder there is so much shade! It’s a medium sized property (depending on your perspective of course, to me its medium at 800 m²). Considering the house is of fair size, that’s really not a lot of space for 33 trees! But if I’m being completely honest about this, it was all the trees that first attracted me to this house. I love trees. The older, the better. To me, trees are like antiques. Valuable and irreplaceable. Sure you can go to any nursery and buy a tree and plant it. But to have or inherit a tree that has lived and grown for years, has seen generations before you live below it … well that’s priceless and valuable.

And I do love shade too. I love my old Willow tree. I love my Cherry Blossom and the old Pepper Tree in the back. And I love the American Sweetgum … and I hope that by the end of March I’ll be able to rattle off the names of all 33 trees :). For today, that’s all I know for sure. I know that there is a Coprosma (but I don’t know which one it is) and I know one of the newer trees is a Rhus (but I don’t know which type of Rhus it is – there are a few “types”), so there is much to find out and learn about my little forest! What I do know is that they are all different (except for 2 x Hibiscus, which are actually shrubs but they are so old and huge that I allow myself to call them trees) and two others are the “same tree” in the back garden, one in full view and one hidden around a corner.

For todays “daily photo” I photographed this tree. I chose this one because I thought it is quite distinctive and it should be easy for me to identify it from my books … but no luck. I’ve been through all my books and looked around the Internet and I’m still none the wiser. If anybody happens to read this that knows what type of tree this is, please let me know. I need all the “tree-identification” help I can get.

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What tree is this?

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A closer view

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Happy gardening
xxx

I have two hibiscus shrubs (but they are more like trees). Both have obviously been here for many years as they are huge. I love these two shrubs because they are lovely to look at, always healthy and grow so rapidly that we have to keep cutting them back or they would take over completely. I’m a complete rookie at identifying plants and have made a few mistakes so far, but I think I have identified this Hibiscus in my garden correctly. I believe it is a Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, also known as Chinese Hibiscus which I read actually originates from South-East Asia.

The one in these photographs lives in my back garden, right in the far corner inbetween two trees (which I have yet to identify). It requires little attention besides hard pruning once or twice a year, has lovely foliage and produces masses of flowers seemingly all year round. The second one lives in the “back yard”, in a cemented area where it grows out of a hole in the cement between our and our neighbours’ properties. I like it there – it is where our rubbish bins and pool pump live and it transforms this area from being unattractive to a shady, flower filled area. This Hibiscus is also huge and requires hard cutting back at least twice a year or it would grow into the windows of the house. Birds and bees seem to love these two shrubs / trees. I see birds here every day which always makes me happy.

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Happy gardening!
xxx