Hibiscus mutabilis 'Rubrum' George Forrest so a single plant can

so a single plant can shift through a whole range of warm tones across the season

and let the fertile flowers feed bees and butterflies through summer

though people tend to lose the race to the birds and mammals that strip a fruiting anacua in short order

in flower and in fruit

From those winter blooms come the fruits: small

Hibiscus mutabilis 'Rubrum' George Forrest so a single plant canHibiscus mutabilis has been grown in Southern gardens for so long that many people assume the shrub is a native, though the species traces to southern China, where gardeners prized the flowers centuries before the plant traveled west. The species name mutabilis, meaning changeable, describes the wild trick of the ordinary Confederate Rose, whose blooms open white in the morning and deepen to pink and then rose red by evening. 'Rubrum' skips the