Mother Hibiscus

I love creative gardening and adore destructive gardening, but what I hate is ‘rescue’ gardening. It’s what I’m having to do with this heat wave, though.

Yesterday I discovered that some of the hibiscus plants I’d inserted in a row of oleanders, in order to fill the gaps created by frost damage, had become pale, sapless ghosts due to lack of water.

Now I’ve made a sort of penance out of trying to rescue the remainder. Fortunately these young plants are being produced at a rate of knots by the original Mother Hibiscus so later on I can replace them where necessary.

They’re all different from her in that she is a standard shrub with fairly small flowers, and they are regular little spindly bushes but with much bigger flowers.

Mother hibiscus (left) and offspring (right)

I read recently that plants which are very closely related genetically and which grow in proximity together tend to thrive more than average. Very cosy.

What other plants have sprogs that are actually an improvement?

What would you go all out to rescue in a drought?

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