Canal Blvd. Hibiscus Bushes Were Acadian Spring

At this month's New Orleans Hibiscus Society meeting, Father Gerlich shared a story about some plants that I long admired that grew in front of a house on Canal Blvd. between Harrison and Fillmore on the Eastern side of the street. There were three four foot high upright Hibiscus plants that were normally covered with huge light colored blooms the size of paper plates. I never knew what variety they were until now.

Father Gerlich told a story that he and Bobby Dupont took a short drive to look at the Canal Blvd. Hibiscus during the set-up of a New Orleans Hibiscus Show at Mt. Carmel High School in 2005. Bobby identified the blooms as his Acadian Spring cultivar. Sad to say that Hurricane Katrina killed these bushes as the flood waters where these bushes grew in Lakeview was probably ten feet deep for weeks.

Now I know what they were and by coincidence own such a bush. I will need to plant one in my yard if I don't have to move to Houston.

Acadian Spring - Best Of Show Single

We entered this bloom in the 2006 New Orleans Hibiscus Show on May 28, 2006 at Loyola University. We had seen this bloom during our April trip to Dupont Nursery, so we included it in the plants we bought. This bloom was picked early Sunday morning in an unopened state. It was almost completely opened when we submitted it for the Judges. It opened the rest of the way before it made it to the judging table where it won a gold ribbon. From there it gets judged against all the other gold ribbon blooms in it's class. It was selected best of class. Next, it gets to compete against the winners of the other three classes. In that competition, it tied with a June's Dragon bloom that was quite large and colorful. It won the run-off judging to win a coveted Best of Show ribbon. After the show we took it home to show our children and our neighbors. It was like carrying a floppy paper plate around the neighborhood. We took a ruler and it measured a solid nine inches in diameter. We will probably never win another Best of Show, so we are very happy to be blessed to win at our home show. We are also happy for Mr. Bobby Dupont as this is one of his blooms. The next local show is the last Sunday in June in Lafayette. Hopefully our Acadian Spring will bloom for that show, too. Mr. Dupont had a number of these plants available for purchase at our show, so there will probably be a dozen entered at the Lafayette Show.