Hibiscus rosa sinensis L. var. rubra

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This, as well as the other varieties of this magnificent plant, is much cultivated in China, and has been introduced many years since into this country.  It flowers with proper treatment almost the whole of the year.  We have a specimen planted in the ground and trained to the back wall of a stove, which presents a perpetual display of its superb blossoms.

In India, the flowers are used by the natives, to decorate their houses and temples, and some of the Europeans there (not much in proof of their superior taste) call it the shoe plant, and use these beautiful flowers to rub over their dirty shoes instead of blacking.’  [LBC no.995/1824].

History at Camden Park

Hibiscus rubra is marked with a ‘c’ in an 1836 edition of Loddiges’ catalogue held at Camden Park [CPA].  In William Macarthur’s code, used and explained elsewhere, this means grown at Camden.  It is almost certain that it was grown in the gardens around this time but may have been short lived as it did not appear in the catalogues.

Notes

Hibiscus spp. tend to be somewhat variable in flower colour and a number of species are recorded with varieties called flore rubra or similar.  These include Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, H. radiatus (but not, as far as I am aware until 1859), H. tiliaceus, H. mutabilis and no doubt others.