PlantFiles: Sleepy Hibiscus, Drummond's Hibiscus
Malvaviscus drummondii

Hummingbirds LOVE this plant.
I found it about 6 years ago in a neglected part of an old heritage garden in Concord NC. It was on a piece of property owned at the time by our church, and before the property was sold, I asked our pastor if I could look for plants in the gardens. It was in a shady area, and I dug up a single small plant. I did not see any growth the following year, and thought it had died. By the 3rd year, it bloomed, and this year it was wonderful! I am so glad to know what this is! I will be using it throughout my gardens.

Beautiful plant which provides much needed late summer/autumn bloom. Has made it through a mild winter for me in NC zone 7b (temps did go down in the teens for about a week). Very late to emerge from dormancy, for me. Tony Avent lists it in his Plant Delights Catalog as being fairly hardy to at least zone 7....

I bought this in a Vicksburg MS nursery.No tag so I didn't know what it was, except it looked like the hibiscus family. I was a student at the NYBG botanical painting courses and did this for my final painting. No one there had ever seen it either.It does great in Memphis and so far came back 2 years. in a brick garden bed next to the house. The seeds germinate very easily. Now I can label my painting. Also the hummingbirds love it.

This plant is listed as a native by the South Georgia Native Plants and Wildflower Symposium (held at UGA Tifton), and I've encountered it in a couple of places near my childhood home. One plant has been in the same place since my childhood, on the edge of a dirt road under an old oak tree. Every fall, when the goldenrods are blooming, we always check to see if it's is blooming again -- I remember one year Mom made a big wildflower bouquet of goldenrod, wild American Beautyberry, and this plant's red flowers, which we apparently call "lipstick bush" in error. It seems that this plant is very hardy in south Georgia, as that plant has been in the same place for over 20 years.

My first one of these came from a nursery going out of business years ago. I call it the "mother plant". It's huge and comes back better every year. It's offspring are in other parts of the yard. Hummingbirds and butterflies love the nectar! I've seen butterflies insert their proboscis through the sides of the closed blooms...they just "know" how to get the nectar!

Great for hummingbirds. After we had the huge old live oak pruned and thinned, I had to move the Turk's Cap closer to the base of the tree. In my experience, it just doesn't like strong afternoon sun and the leaves pucker up. I'm naturalizing some along the utility easement at the back of our property as well.

I think turk's cap is a wonderful plant. It is totally reliable and the red flowers attract humminbirds like crazy. I have one bed planted with desert honeysuckle, turk's cap and autumm sage all red and the birds love to hang around it. We can allways count on finding hummers there.

A friend at a nursery was going to throw away two "scrawny" looking Turk's Cap plants and asked me if I wanted them. I took them and stuck them in the ground and they have spread into plants that are five feet across. I don't think that anyone would have any trouble growing these plants in Zone 8. They are not particular about soil, water, etc. They freeze to the ground every year, and never fail to return in the spring. I would give them a positive rating, but they border on being invasive. However, they are a great Texas native plant.

We also call this plant "Turks Cap" --- and it is extremely easy to grow from cuttings. Just stick them in soil and keep moist for a few days --- it will take care of itself.

In this neck of the woods (St. Augustine Beach, Florida), this is called "Turk's Cap" and is as someone already said, loved by the hummingbirds.

It can grow huge, but is beautiful in the cooler seasons after everything else has stopped blooming.

Malvaviscus drummondii is another of those wonderful heirloom, passalong plants of the Southeastern US, but this one is actually a native of "the woods and pinelands from Cuba through Florida to Texas and Mexico." ( From Easy Care Native Plants by Patricia A. Taylor)

This is a common plant in alleyways and utility easements in St. Petersburg, Florida, where it has become a naturalized urban plant. It makes a very attractive, if rangy, screen for garbage cans, and sprawls over chain link fences, making a light-green screen for back yards. The scarlet flowers are very attractive, but the coarse-looking bush is better put in the background or in the naturalistic garden.

The Wasowski's, in their excellent book Gardening with Native Plants of the South give this plant a huge thumbs-up as being very effective massed under the shade of oak trees. They say in its native habitat it is found growing with American Beautyberry, Dwarf Palmetto, Wild Ageratum, Passionflower, Yaupon Holly, Carolina Jessamine and Yucca.

This plant suckers and will eventually form a large colony. The Wasowski's advise that if you wish to keep it waist high and compact, cut it back to 4 or 5 inches after frost every year.

I grew up with this plant. It can't be beat for providing color in shade, but it does become large and sprawling, and is deciduous in all but the tropical South. I have seen it growing in the Southern suburbs of Atlanta, protected and with mulch, although that is supposedly out of its range.

Being part-Scottish, I had to laugh at Felder Rushing's comment in his book Passalong Plants that the nickname Scotsman's Purse came about because the flowers never fully open.

Malvaviscus drummondii is a very vigorous grower here in Zone 8b, Charleston, South Carolina (U.S.) Hummingbirds love it!

There is an interesting white variety, too.

San Antonio, TX
You need to allow lots of room for this plant, whose origin is Southern Mexico and Central America, to spread. It is a tender perennial that grows back in the spring if has frozen to the ground. It performs best with afternoon shade or light shade here in San Antonio (full sun in cooler climates). Growing in my region in a variety of soil types, I would not state that it requires acidic soil. It needs regular watering, but little feeding is needed, although some 10-30-10 is helpful at planting time. Mulch in the summer and check for mealy bugs.

It is called 'Sleepy Hibiscus' because it resembles a hibiscus whose one inch flowers are ready to open (the flowers never open much). Blooming often and all sunmmer through all fall, it is a shrubby plant (heigth about 5 ft and width about the same as its heighth) with rounded, medium to dark green leaves leaves. The flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. I have propagated it by mound layering and cuttings.

I just planted Malvaviscus drummondii and will have to see if it makes it to spring. It appears to be a very vigorous grower, but my specimen was very rootbound.
This has turned out to be a hardy plant over all and did not suffer any cold damage over the winter and put out many flowers, after taking a few months to recover from being rootbound. It can grow in a neglectful situation, but won't look in tip top shape without sun, rich soil, and ample water. When it is happy you will get the maximum number of blooms. If planted in more shade it will not bloom as much.