PlantFiles: Hardy Hibiscus, Rose Mallow, Swamp Mallow
Hibiscus moscheutos 'Kopper King'

The flowers are huge and profuse and stand out well against the bronze foliage. Wonderful to add texture and foliage color to the border. I have also grown them, as you can with most perennial hibiscus, in my watergardens.
Perennial hibiscus tend to be among the last plants to emerge in spring, even in mild 8b, they can be as late to emerge as early June. But no worries, they catch up quick.

This mallow grows well in my zone 4 garden, but as mentioned before, is very late to emerge in the spring. Even though I was aware of this, I had almost given up hope, since there was no sign of life until mid-June. It has shot up very quickly and has many large buds, in early August. The foliage color is spectacular for landscape use, especially if your house color is enhanced by the deep purple-green leaves. This is my first mallow, and I want new growers of this plant to know it is not damaged by breaking off dormant branches in the fall/winter. My husband was the recipient of an evil eye from me after breaking off a few branches when putting Christmas lights on the house. Since I now know the entire plant emerges from the ground each year, I suppose I owe him an apology!

I got this plant from a mail-order catalog. I thought it wont grow but to my surprise it is thriving very well here in Northwest Florida. I have 4 of them now and I am planning to either propagate from cuttings or I read it grows from seed. I noticed a seed pod from one of the plant how will I know if it's ready for propagation? Any help will be appreciated:)

great dark foliage and huge flowers. I accidentally broke a stem off, stuck it straight in the ground-now I have 2 :)

I'm a little late giving information on the hardy hibiscus, but by all means plant from seed directly outdoors. Bloomed 1st year, and every year since. My first group of seeds were white blossoms, but a pink one came through. I'll add red this year. They are outstanding. Good idea to plant something in front. Depending on the amount of rain we get, it can be sad looking toward the end of it's bloom period.

I originally purchased several of these when living on the coast of NC. About 2 years after I planted it, I moved to a different house so, of course, 2 of these moved with me. Now I'm in the Panhandle of FL and, yes you guessed it, 1 had to move with me. We're now living happily after one bloom season. It is slower to come back and bloom more than some other hibiscus, but it's worth the wait. The flowers are HUGE! Up to 8" flowers! Needs lots of water and fertilizer in summer.

Also, since it grows to 4'-5' tall, I plant shorter evergreen bushes in front of them. That way, the shorter bushes hide the stalks when it dies down and I don't have an empty spot during the winter. Once the stalks start to die down, I cut them off (need tree pruners since stalks get so big) and wait till next year.

You can split the plants (winter or summer) and have more -- they get thicker again. I've never tried seeds, but I think I'm going to take a cutting and see what happens. It's starting to loose its leaves now and die back so we'll see how the cutting works.

I have found the Kopper King Hibiscus very late to emerge in my Mass. Garden. Here it is the middle of June and it is just starting to break through the dirt. Has anyone else experienced the late show? I was beginning to think it didn't make it through our cold winter without much snow.