Consider Hibiscus Syriacus. Blue Bird is one cultivar, Blue Satin is another that is purportedly better. Supposedly, a more vigorous grower and better color maybe. But i don't know. I only have the Blue Bird.

The expensive seeds on Ebay are probably an exotic hydbridized Rosa Sinensis (the tropical hibisicus). I've never bought a fancy hybrid but from what I've heard they are generally not good growers or great plants, they are prized for fancy flowers. The seeds and plants are very expensive because the person who came up with the hybrid doesn't have a lot of plant material to make more (done vegatatively.) As for seeds, if the seeds did come from a hybrid the plants may not resemble the parent plant at all. May still be cool though.

The Syricaus should not be nearly that expensive. I bought a one gallon pot for about the price of those seeds (and I thought that was expensive). And the syriacus is much more hardy, although that won't matter for you on the Texas Coast.

The Syriacus will turn into a vase shaped shrub. If you're familiar with Crape Myrtles, and you probably are living in Texas, - It will look something like that.

Hope that helps.

H. syriacus 'Blue Satin' is a patented plant as well, so only certain licensed growers are allowed(supposed to) sell it.

Whether it is H. rosa-sinensis seeds or H. syriacus 'Blue Satin' seeds, they are both cultivars and you are not guaranteed what the new plant will be. The only sure way is by vegetative propagation.

There is also another former Hibiscus, now Alyogyne, called 'Blue Hibiscus' it is actually Alyogyne huegelii.

As far as H. rosa-sinensis is concerned, blue does not naturally occur in this species. This color has long been a challenge to hybridizers to get a "purple" that looks "blue". That's why it's rare and that's why your best bet would be to buy an actual cloned plant to make sure you are getting the same bloom.

Ok Minibim so basicly the seeds wont be true to the blue hibiscus so only way to get it is buy one already grown .Question if I buy 2 blue hibiscus and pollinate them will the seeds be true or not.And u are right the blue hibiscus really is some what purple in color.Angie

Hi,

I got a blue hibiscus a few weeks ago at wildflower farms. They sell plants at the actual nursery. It was a nice size plant and got it for under 14.00. It is supposed to be hardy and has different leaves than a regular hibiscus. Email me if you want and I will get you more info on it. I live in Austin and if it will survive for me it should do very well for you.

Hi Jennifer9906 I love wildflower farms was there in april its in fredricksberg did they ship it to u are did u drive to get it.Blue hibiscus are tuff to get .I cant find that or a white texas star hibiscus both are hard to get.Angie

In Oklahoma, it is also difficult to find the Blue Satin Hibiscus syriacus.

In early Spring, a year ago, I was looking for one to train into a patio tree form. After checking numerous nurseries, I finally found some at Colebrook Nursery in NE OK. The ones they had were growing in 3 gallon pots, but had been trained to grow as a shrub.

After purchasing one of them, I pruned away all but the best looking stem, which in only a year seems to be nicely taking on the role of a single main leader trunk.

This Blue Satin is amazing. It survived the 9 month drought period we had last year. It also survived the early spring warm-up this year, which was followed quickly by a sudden hard freeze.

By late Spring of this year, many people in the area lost even well established plants, trees, and shurbs. My Blue Satin Hibisus syriacus showed no signs of stress from its establishing period's difficult growing condions.

All I have and am still doing for it, is to water it regularly with our city water, which is clorinated.

As bad as last year's climate conditions were, this week has presented an even worse condition. The Blue Satin is now surviving nicely even with the excessive heat situation of this last week and a half. Daily high temps. have ranged from 100 to 104. The National Weather Service predicts tomorrow's high temps to reach 105 before the Weekend's high temps drop down to the 90s again. All the while My 'Blue Satin' keeps blooming, and shows no sign of environmental distress.

I am really surprised that the Blue Satin seems to keep up with my Chaste trees in its tollerance level for our sometimes overlapping and fluxuating USDA zone 6 winter and current, what would be expected in an USDA zone 9 area's, summer conditions.

I shot this on a very cloudy, dreary day, and the plant hasn't bloomed since on a sunny day so that I can get a better shot. It's a blue Rose of Sharon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Althea