Hibiscus moscheutos Pink Passion - Swamp Rose Mallow

Hibiscus moscheutos 'Pink Passion' is a variety of rose mallow that stands out for its huge flowers with a 25 cm (9.8 in) diameter of intense pink colour and its dark purple cut leaves! It is a large perennial whose rapid growth allows it to start from the stump every spring to form in just a few months, a bush about 1 m (3 ft 4 in) in all directions that embellishes the garden with the exotic charm and strong colours of its foliage and flowering. From July to September, it bears flowers that consist of large, bright pink cups with delicately pleated petals and cream-coloured pistils and stamens standing out from a bright red to dark red heart. Its flowers last a short time but renew themselves abundantly throughout the summer season if the soil at its base is never allowed to dry out. Its highly cut, dark purple foliage develops shades of olive-green and bronze on the underside, which allows for interesting contrasts in clumps with lighter foliage and provides additional decoration outside the summer period. Accustomed to warm marshes, it is a plant that loves full sun and rich, cool to moist soils. Use it to form short-lived hedges with other marsh mallows or a strongly coloured background at the edge of a pond, or plant them in several pots to punctuate the surroundings of a terrace.

Hibiscus moscheutos, also known as Hibiscus palustris, is a herbaceous plant with a woody stump from the mallow family, related to mallows and hollyhocks. It is native to the marshes of the southern United States, where it can reach a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in). Horticulturists have taken this amazing botanical species and produced many very interesting cultivars, displaying larger flowers, various colours, and increased floribundity.

The 'Pink Passion' variety is a creation of Pépinière Fleurs du Sud and belongs to the Carousel range, which brings together hardy and floriferous rose mallow varieties with dark purple foliage that particularly enhances their huge single flowers. It forms a beautiful bushy clump that will quickly reach a height of 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) and a width of 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in one season. This cultivar stands out for its intense pink flowers, enhanced by a bright red to dark red heart and a pistil bristling with cream-coloured stamens. They bloom into single flowers, 25 cm (9.8 in) wide, with slightly crumpled petals. They are short-lived but constantly renew themselves from July to September. The stems and veins are reddish-purple, contrasting with the dark undertones of its foliage. The large leaves are divided into three narrow and pointed lobes with widely crenellated margins, of a dark purple, almost black, colour with olive-green and bronze undertones, especially on the underside, remaining very ornamental throughout the growing season.

Rose mallow plants are spectacular and cannot be ignored: their huge flowers are sometimes difficult to integrate into a natural setting, which some people dislike, or they are loved for the same reasons that make them popular in contemporary-style gardens or in a carefully organised exotic scene around a water feature or on a terrace. This superb plant may suffer in mountain regions, although it can withstand temperatures as low as -15 °C (5 °F). All rose mallow plants add a different dimension to waterlogged flower beds or the edge of a pond, when combined with Gunnera, cannas, arum of Ethiopia, Rodgersia Chocolate Wings, or Colocasia esculenta.