Dombeya x 'Seminole' Loves the Heat

My garden is inland a little bit from San Diego so we get heat in the summer. I love those plants that like heat. You know the ones I mean, just as I am wilting, they are perking up and look positively chipper as the temperature climbs. Their growth accelerates as temperatures go above 80 degrees F. Dombeya x 'Seminole' is one such plant. Planted last fall as the temperatures were cooler, it kind of sat there for a few months--that is-- until it got hot, and now it is putting on impressive growth. Not sure what made me try it, it is supposed to really like water, and I never intended to put water lovers in my garden. Once a week this shrub gets maybe 30 seconds of water from the hose and it is doing well. I have it sited under the high shade of a tree it is refreshingly dark green and robust on that amount of water. The leaves are large and really green like a Hydrangea macrophylla and because of this is often called, "Tropical Rose Hydrangea."

Dombeya x 'Seminole' or Dombeya burgessiae 'Seminole'                                                                     S. Reeve

So far the growth habit is full and it hasn't required pruning. It takes well to pruning and can be kept 3-5 feet high and wide pretty easily even though it wants to be 8 feet tall and wide. Dombeya is in the Malvaceae. Originally this species comes from East Africa and was named for Joseph Dombey, a French botanist from the eighteenth century. This plant is a hybrid created in 1973 by crossing two selections of Dombeya burgessiae, E-29 and 'Rosemound'. This created a smaller denser plant with brighter pink flowers. The flowers are held on the outside and are very showy, occurring in large clusters of vivid pink petals. Each flower is 1-1.5 inches. The flowers are not fragrant. 

               Blooming Dombeya x 'Seminole'    

This is a long-blooming shrub. It starts in the fall and blooms until the spring. Large bowl-shaped flowers are popular with bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, making this a "must-have" wildlife plant for my garden. 

Costa's Hummingbird on Dombeya x 'Seminole'                                                                                   Pedro Lastra

This plant also does well in a pot. It is a precocious flower machine and will bloom very young. If you are in a colder zone, you could try it in a pot and take it in in the winter. Dombeya burgessiae 'Seminole' can take pretty radical pruning too and still come back just fine. Prune after the blooms stop in the spring. It is not cold tolerant though and is rated USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 9 and higher. Zone 9 is a little iffy though as this plant does not tolerate freezing temperatures at all. It is evergreen here in Zone 10b. It needs well-draining alkaline to slightly acidic soil which I have here. Not that I fertilize anything, but I wouldn't use chemical fertilizer on this plant, as I can imagine one of the those "miracle" fertilizers would cause lanky unattractive forced growth. The fruit is a five-chambered oval brown capsule. 

Nobuhiro Suhara photographer

Leaves appear healthy and I have not seen any pests on this plant. What remains to be seen is how well it flowers in a little shade. I have a feeling it will bloom just fine.