In message , Jeff Layman
writes
On 30/08/2012 11:46, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
In message , Nancy
Young writes
Every year this crops up in my flower beds and I let some
of it be. I like the balloon pods/whatever and the flowers
are pretty. It's easy enough to pull out if it starts to take
over.

http://tinypic.com/r/70bach/6

Hibiscus trionum

I'd wondered what it was. Why is it not grown more as a (half-hardy?)
annual in the UK? In fact, I don't remember ever seeing it in a garden
here. Might make a good display in a cottage garden.

It's just about hardy enough to treat it as a hardy annual.

Powis Castle used to have it. (I haven't been there for a few years.)
I've also seen it as a greenhouse plant at Threave Gardens.

I've grown it as well. I've even had a spontaneous seedling come up
once, not the next year after growing it, but the year after that.

Hibiscus trionum is a species complex. A recent paper divides the
Australasian populations into three species. FWIW, I reckon that there's
at least one more species in the group, and possibly more.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley