hibiscus kopper king

For mother's birthday back in July we went shopping for plants at a new nursery in Gainesville, VA called Merrifield Garden Center which is the third in a family owned series of great nurseries. We found the perennial winter hardy hibiscus was what she wanted most and after looking around a while we found a bunch. We chose the Kopper King Hibiscus because of it's reddish green leaves and pink flowers. None had any flowers but the description was pretty good. This week on my first visit since we planted the birthday hibiscus it was in bloom and had grown almost a foot taller! Nine inches across these huge flowers or 23 centimeters is I think the biggest flower I have ever seen. I took Mom back to that nursery this week and we nearly melted from the heat so we didn't stay long. I found a Ironweed in full flower that I wanted for my garden in the city. It is a wild flower that I discovered for the first time in the little strip of wild grass behind the house in Manassas in what used to be a cow pasture some years ago. I loved the tall plant with it's dark rich purple blooms and found it in a field guide. Now also available at Merrifield Garden Center with many other native wild flowers. See my flickr. pages for those pictures.