I have the pink turk's cap too. It is just a different type. I also have white. Nova and I used to trade plants regularly when she lived near by and she might have got it from me, or vise vera. :o)

I also have one that is red, but the flower is only the size of your thumb nail.

The pink is actually a sport of the red and the pink can send a sport back out of the red.

I have the pink and it sported a red, cut the branch off and rooted it. So, I have one plant now that blooms red and pink at the same time.

I have a red and a pink, too. Got the pink from Tracy at Seminole Springs (she gave me a cutting of hers). It hasn't bloomed for me yet. The red one was a gift from Kathy (gardengrl) who lives near me. It is doing well, but hasn't bloomed yet, either. I also got a cutting of the abutilon (flowering maple) from Nova that I plant to put in the same area with the red turk's cap.

Turk's cap is a very old Florida plant...it was used in landscaping extensively in the 30's and 40's, and always reminds me of my childhood. It was one of those things that every yard had, though you can hardly find them for sale any more. Hummers LOVE them!

Marcia

Very cool. There is a red Turk's cap in the woods across the street and I never notice it until it blooms. I have always liked them. I'll just have to acquire a red and a white too. It would be cool to get a red sport. My Louis Phillipe has a branch that seems to bloom pink most of the time. It is a pretty neat effect.

Thanks.

They root REALLY easy, Melissa...just snip off a cutting or two, and you will have a red one in no time!

Marcia

I was just at the mailbox and spotted the red one across the street blooming. Next time I go out, it will be with clippers.

A word of caution, they get very big. I love mine, but I had to dig up a pink one because it was colonizing a large part of my yard. When the branches touch the ground they grow roots and the plant is off again. The humingbirds do like them, though.

Perhaps the best thing about them is that they start doing really well right about now and keep going well beyond Christmas. I think some people actually call them the Christmas hibiscus--or is that another hibiscus?

Beautiful red flowers---seems to fit the Christmas spirit.

No worries there. Space is something I am not short on and I finally maybe probably am figuring out not to plant things too close together. Perhaps.

Melissa

I have a big red Turk's Cap planted along my driveway. I just love that little star on the end of each bloom! Mine has bloomed strongly straight through the summer, and was an inherited plant from my 1959 CBC home.

Nobody was interested in my offer for this plant on Ricky's swap link, so I just printed Marcia's post about Turk's Cap, and will take a bucket of cuttings. I remember seeing a beautiful picture of it in the book "Florida's Fabulous Flowers".

I'll sleep well knowing more homes can grace this beautiful old Florida plant!

Tom, I'm printing your post too!

Thanks,
marilyn

When I was growing up I remember that we would take the turks cap off and suck the end for the necture. No wonder the hummers like it!

Funny you should mention that, Wanda...when I got my cutting from Tracy at Seminole Springs, that is exactly what she did. I remember doing that, too, and also with petunias. Of course, as a kid, I tried all sorts of stuff like that...my aunt had to stop me from putting chinaberries in my salad once. Probably would have killed me! It's a wonder I survived childhood at all!

Marilyn, I'm sure many of your cuttings will find good homes. In the older parts of town, Turk's caps are still seen forming long, tall hedges and beautiful accent plants. There's a reason they are still here after so many years. They LOVE Florida, unlike so many landscape plants sold today.

Marcia

How do you trim them into hedges? Mine was leggy so I tried to make a tree of it propagating each branch I cut but they seem awful leggy to be a hedge.I do love all the little starts mixed in with my coleus.Someday Ill get a pink and white .

Goldenpond, I can't take credit for, but inherited a hedge of turk's cap. My only suggestion would be to cut back severly just before significant growing seasons, and leave it alone during dormancy. Maybe Marcia or Wanda have better suggestions.

By the way, I've never seen pink or white blossoms, just red ones, about 2" in length with the cool star on the end. I thought it was a mutant hibiscus for the first few years I lived here.

Wanda and Marcia, I tasted the end of a bloom today! Thanks for sharing...

Marilyn

My Mom called them sleeping hibiscus because the bloom never opened. The bush was down the alley way and was cut back alot. We kept our garbage cans next to them.

You probably got the turk's cap from me. I brought a few to Nova's swap. One year I took a bunch of cuttings from my mom's plants but when I rooted them I forgot to label which were pink and which were red. Here pink and red bushes are planted right next to each other so that their branches mingle. The effect is really pretty. I love how pretty the plants are but don't have a spot for the full sized bushes yet. I did buy a dwarf white turks cap for my garden though.

I never seen a dwarf white, mine is hugh so I trained it as a tree, must be 10 tall at least, so is my pink one.

I don't really train many of my plants, but this is one plant I would strongly recommend it with. My original one is quite large and rather unruly, if it didn't work so well for hiding a fence, I'd probably removed it. Who knows how large this thing could get, if I never trimmed it, it's probably 10 feet wide.

I have another that I am trying to keep as a trimmed shrub, I remove all the growth that grows out in an odd fashion. It has probably 5 main branches and everything on the lower part is cut off.

Then the one that is pink with the red sport, I am trying to keep as a standard.