Jane Cowl - 2004

This bloom is from the same Jane Cowl hibiscus bush that provided the ribbon winning bloom in 2002. This bloom was entered in the 2004 New Orleans Hibiscus Show and won the Best Collector Double ribbon. This is a better bloom than the one entered in 2002. It is bigger and has a richer color. The irony is that on that day it was only the second best bloom on the bush. The rules allow only one bloom per cultivar per person. I brought three blooms and one was clearly the best. It was bigger and fuller than the other two. To display the bloom, you need to impale the bloom underneath onto a sharpened stiff wire. When I tried to stick the wire into the bloom, the bloom got damaged and lost a number of petals near the base. I had to enter one of the other two smaller blooms and it won the Best Collector Double Ribbon! Go figure.