Rose Mallow Hibiscus moscheutos 'Lord Baltimore'.
Picked up one of these yesterday in our new quest for late to very late blooming perennials for our large rural SW PA zone 5/6ish perennial garden. Years of work are paying off now, but it goes away too soon.
Anyhowz... what we're considering is plopping this thing (and maybe more in the future) in the middle (and later, ends) of our 3' X 12' iris bed. This bed really is the focal point of the garden in the spring (being nearly centered) as it should be, but by this point all that irisy looking scrub detracts from all the other great stuff going on in there. I thought that somehting like these, with their 10" blooms might dress it up.
How well do these hardy hibiscus play with others? Is there anything about the iris rhizomes that will compete with it for nutrients or whatever? This bed is slated for digging up and dividing this fall or next, and I was wondering how the mature root system might affect them in future years? This garden is being done with the very long-term in mind and I want things that I can do there that simplify, not complicate things.
I see many links for this variety, but they all seem to focus on the monster blooms and never show the whole plant. I need to confirm whether this grows in one 'trunk-like' shoot or many shoots that might put a whole in the middle of the iris bed, and so-forth. Sparse folliage is a real good thing for this spot which adds to it's appropriateness, so long as I do not do anything to disrupt or diminish what is a spectacular iris show of colors that carefully fade to the next.
Any thoughts on this or anything related?