what is this flower please?

it looks like it might be an hibiscus, possibly. the coin doesnt help me on size as i am a brit and dont know how big it is sorry. excuse my ignorance :o)
welcome to GoY too. some one will be able to help better.

thanks......we have hibiscus, but this is different..it does not open up..it stays "closed" and it is smaller even than a dwarf hibiscus, but I am a first year gardener so I don't know anything yet!

Turk's Cap "hibiscus", Malvaviscus arboreus

Thanks so much! I *is* a hibiscus then...our Brit friend was correct! I read online that some people call it the "sleeping hibiscus" because the petals never open. I saw it today and got a small plant from a neighbor and planted him tonight. I hope we don't have an early freeze, because it said they might bloom as long as December. This looks like a very nice site.........is it ok to reply to answers and if not, how might I reply personally to the answer person?

Legs16 welcome to GoY - it is fine to reply to answers, be warned we are perfectly capable of drifting off topic!

you can send personal messages by clicking on the picture/icon/avitar of the person you want to speak too. you then get an option to send a personal message [pm] just like doing e-mail.

glad you identified it. it looks lovely.

Love the colour, very vibrant. And as for replying and sending answers, the more the merrier... welcome.

Welcome what coin is that and is it Lincoln's head on it? I think I sometimes learn more from the discussions a question raises than just one straight answer.

Malvaviscus arboreus does have a cousin - drumondii, which I always preferred, as it grew more like a shrub with bigger flowers, where as arboreous tends to be leggy and more vine like. Both will do 3m, with arboreous exceeding this in shady conditions.

Ok, I do see the place now where to leave a private message. Thanks for explaining that to me!

In answer to Drc726, the coin is an American penny...one hundred pennies make a dollar, which is worth just about nothing nowadays! And yes, that is Lincoln on the face...I think he might still be on our five dollar bill as well, though they recently changed all most of our folding money and now I'm not familiar with it like I used to be

Anyway, this is a wonderful site and I will be asking probably a lot more things.

My husband is Dutch, and we were in Holland in May, and he wanted to have a flower garden when we got back home to west Texas, which is really north Texas, but they refer to it as west for some odd reason.

We are in the "panhandle".....that little part on top that joins to the state.

We are in a very dry, hot location and many things won't grow here. We have a very sandy, poor soil we can't have the flowers that he loved in Holland.

I did research online what might do well here and I have been surprised by what actually happened with some of the plants I bought. Next spring we will probably be able to tell batter what can survive the winter.

Thanks so much for your welcome and all the valuable information. I do appreciate it all so much!

From the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website: "The variety name of this plant is named for Thomas Drummond, (ca. 1790-1835), naturalist, born in Scotland, around 1790. In 1830 he made a trip to America to collect specimens from the western and southern United States. In March, 1833, he arrived at Velasco, Texas to begin his collecting work in that area. He spent twenty-one months working the area between Galveston Island and the Edwards Plateau, especially along the Brazos, Colorado, and Guadalupe rivers. His collections were the first made in Texas that were extensively distributed among the museums and scientific institutions of the world." So of course, a Tex-Mex native would be named for a Scot!

How funny! I'm a native Texan and have never lived outside the state, and yet until last week I'd never see the sleeping hibiscus! I am seeing flowers all around me in a new light, probably because I have a flower garden of my own for the very first time. I find myself stopping the car to look at flowers and taking walks to see what's growing in the neighbor's yards. I have even met a few people in the neighborhood just by stopping by and asking them about certain flowers and twice people have very kindly told me all they knew and even given me some plants.

This is a wonderful site and I am so pleased to meet so many knowledgeable and helpful folks!

Thanks again everyone for your help!