One area of my front yard is low lying clay. It’s poorly drained, and looks like this any time it rains:
Hardy Hibiscus (as in the herbaceous perennials, not Rose of Sharon) is often said to be good for these kind of conditions. Can anyone confirm?
Most of my yard is a very well-drained loam, but whatever was used up near the house to grade the property 40 years ago was this very heavy clay.
That was just from the hose being on for a few minutes. About 12 hours later it had drained.
I have never attempted to grow hardy hibiscus in such conditions, but the hardy hibiscus was originally bred from the wild rose mallow that thrives along the edges of creeks and lakes.
See this post here for some pictures I took of wild ones last year:
Basically, I suspect they would do just fine in clay provided it isn’t continuously saturated.
You could try raising the height of the bed a few inches. That would probably be sufficient.
I want to do that, (raise it), but I have to get it to dry out enough to work the soil first.
I planted hardy hibiscus, Joe-pye-weed, probably 50 of one and near 100 of the other along a ditchline beside a long driveway………around 5 years ago…were gorgeous last Friday when I visited the customer and planted a tree.
I’m actually sitting here wondering if it would be worth the labor to dig out about two wheelbarrowfulls of the clay, and exchange it for the better-drained soil from the backyard.
Of course, even if I could do that, then I have to worry about what to put in the backyard where I now have this giant hole full of clay.
I have two hardy hibiscus here. My soil is terrible clay. If you dig a hole and fill it with water, some water is still there 5 days later sometimes. When we moved in we tilled compost in to the top 6 inches of clay. I’ve lost a lot of plants to rot due to poor drainage. The hibiscus are doing great! I wouldn’t dig out too huge of a hole. I’ve found that all that does is allow the water to drain Into the hole and sit there, drowning the roots.
Great post Sam
Good info! Colorado is much drier than Maryland, though. Unless it’s an irrigated bed.
