These long summer days are precious. Here in East Texas the light becomes perceptible right around 5:30 am outside, and it doesn’t take me long to be outside afterwards. The family is still asleep, and traffic on the road is light.
Each morning, I scan the garden to see if there’s anything I need to consider for the day’s tasks. And, in these high days of summer, I’m greeted by the blooms of Hibiscus ‘Lufkin Red’. It’s baseball-sized flowers are visible from 100 feet away.
I first learned of this plant from visiting Stoneleigh years ago. During a tour, Ethan Kauffman made an off comment about how this selection was named after a town near me, and once he said ‘Lufkin Red’, I immediately recognized the name for the town 30 minutes south of Nacogdoches.
From further investigation, I learned this cultivar was developed with leaf spot resistance in mind. In the deep south where heat and humidity reign, fungal diseases abound. So, Cecil Pounders made selections of native hibisicus species that exhibited leaf-spot resistance and allowed them to naturally cross. ‘Lufkin Red’ (and another selection named ‘Lufkin White’) originated from a blemish free plant collected from East Texas. It is a winter hardy Hibiscus laevis type, but due to being open pollinated, the complete parentage is unknown.
Hibiscus ‘Lufkin Red’ provides a pop of color along the pergola at Stoneleigh in Philadelphia.
Ethan was kind enough to do a plant swap with me. I sent him some east Texas treasures, and ‘Lufkin Red’ was one of the plants I received in his shipment. Last year was the first full year of it being in the ground, and now the second year is even better.
While the flowers only last one day, the plant is loaded and blooms continuously until we hit the hottest and driest part of the summer. It then resumes flowering later in the fall. I counted almost 20 open flowers one day, and with the indeterminate inflorescences it shows no sign of slowing down.
To me the color is more hot electric pink than red, a color that won’t get washed out baking in the sun. It’s a wonderful hue to welcome the day as the flowers glow in the rising sun. When I walk past the plant again at dusk, I can tell that pollinators have visited as the pollen has shed and collected in the corolla.
In the morning, Hibiscus ‘Lufkin Red’ flowers are pristine, and after a rainy night they catch rain drops on their petals.
A ‘Lufkin Red’ Hibiscus flower showing the wear and tear of a long day.
Because I was short on room, I planted the hibiscus behind our patch fence where I had other perennials I was trialing. Its performance has me rethinking its placement as it’s a focal point and not something to be tucked away behind a fence. Next year, I plan to move it more to the forefront so that blooms can be enjoyed better.
I’m also practicing good companions for it. Nearby, I planted Canna × ehemanii (Ehemann's canna), a wonderful selection not often seen in the trade from my friend Greg Grant. The color of the flowers is the perfect echo, and the foliage contrasts well. The canna is much less hardy than the hibiscus, and I have to bring the rhizomes in during the winter. But, it is worth the extra effort to perpetuate it.
An abundance of flowers on Hibiscus ‘Lufkin Red’ is a welcome sight each morning.
Canna × ehemanii and Hibiscus ‘Lufkin Red’ make good bedfellows with their pink flower color echo.
In my Deep South naturalistic plantings, I’m always looking for some bold elements for a different texture that can tolerate our summer heat. Both of these plants will be good options for future plantings.