Per Home Guides.... Non-toxic Hibiscus Most hibiscus plants, such as the Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), which thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11, or the rose mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpos), growing in USDA zones 5 through 9, are safe for canine consumption. In fact, hibiscus flowers are used in the making of many herbal teas sold in the U.S., according to WebMD. You aren't likely to make tea for your pup, but there's no need to worry if you see him tasting the sweet blooms or other parts of a safe variety of hibiscus. Toxic Variety While most hibiscus pose no threat to canines, a couple do. The ASPCA lists one main hibiscus variety in its database of varieties toxic to dogs. The rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), also called the rose of China, grows in USDA zones 5 through 8. It blooms all summer and into fall, traditionally with pink blooms or blooms that are pink with red centers. Modern cultivars create other bloom colors including blue, white and red. As a deciduous shrub, it loses its leaves for the winter and grows new ones -- which might look tasty to your dog -- in the spring. It can grow up to 12 feet tall, but it creates blooms and leaves all along the branches, meaning there will be plenty at your pooch's eye level to tempt him.

A friend gave us some hibiscus flower tea. The dried Hibiscus petals in it were rock hard. I have dried some of my own hibiscus flowers & they are not like that, but fine & delicate when dried. Why the difference & would mine still make good tea. The gift Hibiscus tea tastes like lemon or rose hips. I haven't tried mine yet.

I must confess, that I know they need hardening off in the spring least they burn up , but it seems mine even after weeks of hardening off still want to burn even in Michigan, though most likely any of those weaker leaves that burn would be shed and then would be followed by more sun tollerant leaves. In fact some older foliage on some types of tropicals never will acclimate to full sun though the newer leaves do, but in hopes of the reverse not making them shed in fall going from bright light to much lower light, I just picked a sort of middle ground so the new leaves dont' demand so much light without going into shock on their return trip indoors. I find that even the growth on my bougainvilleas , which gets five or six hours of sun starting in late afternoon, goes into a fast decline within a week of comming back indoors, and nearly all leaves are shed in a little over a couple of weeks. As I recall, most of the hibiscuses in California were growing in nearly full sun to part sun, so I know the extra sun will help with flowering. Next summer I will bite the bullet and not worry about burnt leaves so much and hopefully that will make a difference.

Almost certainly a Hibiscus sp., judging from the conspicuous ring of epicalyx bracts around each flower. Another diverse genus, with many little-known species in C and S America. My guess is it belongs to the large Section Furcaria (see www.malvaceae.info website). The flower is very like H. radiatus, the stems and foliage like H. diversifolius, but there are doubtless other spp. in this alliance.