Hibiscus Around the World Letters to J.W. Staniford from Ross H. Gast Published by the AMERICAN HIBISCUS SOCIETY 1980 The transformation of ornamental hibiscus from obscure species to its present high state of cultivation is due to the work of amateur hybridizers rather than formal genetic research by plant scientists. It is to these men and women, creating beauty in their own gardens the world over, that this book is humbly dedicated. La Mesa, California March 1, 1980 Dear Reader: As this little volume is a series of communications between two friends deeply involved in the improvement of ornamental hibiscus, it seems quite appropriate that the usual introduction found on the lead pages of most books be presented in the form of a letter to the reader. After all, anyone interested in ornamental hibiscus is a friend of the writer and, therefore, a joint addressee of the letters reproduced herein. First in order is a presentation of the leading characters. The reader is advised that precedence in naming the first one is not dictated by her knowledge of the genetic history of ornamental hibiscus, but by her charm, and willingness to sacrifice self- interest and conform to the wishes of a somewhat ephemeral husband. I refer to Ella, the little four-foot eleven-inch tall lady I married 57 years ago. While she appreciates the beauty of hybrid hibiscus, her hobby is Yorkshire Terrier dogs. She has been a fancier of the breed since 1933 and has many American and Mexican champions to her credit. Obviously, her service as "Madame Secretary" of the world-wide search for new hibiscus species meant that she had to give up, for the time at least, her own hobby. The second and third in our list of characters should be introduced together - the writer, and Joe Staniford the recipient of these letters. However, to Mrs. Sue Schloss, dynamic and apparently indefatigable Executive Secretary of the American Hibiscus Society and editor of "Seed Pod" must go the credit for the publication of "Hibiscus Around the World". Here's why: Several years ago the writer Xeroxed several copies of "Letters to Joe", written on the first "expedition," and bound them in booklet form. A copy was sent to the American Hibiscus Society for its "Archives". Sue read this and insisted they be published, together with letters on the second and third "expeditions". The history of the writer's love affair with hibiscus is made clear in the letters which follow, but Joe Staniford's place in the hobby, although substantial, has not been told. He began as a collector, as did the writer, in the early 1950's and by 1956 had all of the varieties available locally in his yard in Pasadena. That year one of his associates (he was then Assistant Chief Architect for the County of Los Angeles) called his attention to an article in the National Horticultural Magazine concerning the new interest in the hybridization of hibiscus in Florida by members of the American Hibiscus Society. My name was mentioned as being one of the founders of that organization in 1950 and an active member of the group participating in improving ornamental hibiscus. Surprised to learn that another "aficionado" lived close by, Joe called on me and recalled in a recent letter that "you loaded me down with a large number of varieties that I did not have".) Joe and I became close friends and he soon became "hooked" on hybridizing, an avid pollen duster, adept at grafting and proper handling of propagation material. I had already become associated with the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum at Arcadia, close to my ranch at Monrovia and not far from Joe's home. He began to spend part of his Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Arboretum with me. We set up a project designed to develop hardier cultivars for Southern California conditions, crossing such cross-compatible species as were then available to us. These included the Hawaiian whites, H. arnottianus and H. waimeae and the Hawaiian reds, called H. kokio. Later, H. denisonii, origin unknown, was added to our list. In 1961 I was offered a position as managing director of British subsidiary of the Germain Seed Company, Los Angeles, with headquarters in London. Germain had purchased the Filcoat Process for pelleting seed and had been approached by the British Sugar Corporation to set up a cooperative research deal leading up to an exclusive distribution contract with the Sugar Corporation. My job was to work in close cooperation with the agriculturists of the 17 sugar beet factories in England and Scotland, making field tests, etc. Pelleting seed made it possible to use spacing planters, thus eliminating costly thinning. I was quite surprised to learn that there were 420,000 acres of sugar beets planted annually in the British isles, but after the first season, when it seemed that I had seen every acre, I was sure this figure was correct. Ella and I spent three years in England. However, we always came home for the late fall and winter months. Joe "minded the store" while I was away and reported the progress of our project faithfully. And all was not sugar beets with me - I spent my spare time at the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society, and in the library of the British Museum of Natural History. I was able to read just about everything in print on ornamental hibiscus, and copy many old color prints of the flowers. In 1963 Joe and I decided that we must have other cross-compatible species for use in our project and thus began the first of our "expeditions". This was, in effect, a return to my job in England by the way of the Pacific Ocean. We left Los Angeles the middle of October, 1963, and arrived in England late in February, 1964. The letters that follow were written during this trip. Letters written on the second and third "expeditions" with a suitable explanatory introduction are also included in this volume. As ever, Ross H. Gast P.S. Joe Staniford retired as Chief Architect for the County of Los Angeles in 1976 and now owns a condominium in Hawaii where he spends several months a year. He has again become a collaborator, assisting with my work on the Hibiscus Evolutionary Garden, Waimea Arboretum. PART ONE October 20, 1963 - March 1, 1964 Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Malaya, Ceylon, India, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea Honolulu, Hawaii October 20, 1963 Dear Joe: Thirty years have passed since I called Hawaii home, years which have not let me forget the old Island saying: "- to leave Hawaii is to die a little". However, it has been my good fortune to have been able to return often and while saddened by the commercialism of the Islands, nothing has really changed for me. Sitting here tonight on the lanai of this garish Waikiki Beach hotel, I can close my eyes to the blare and glare of tourism, and the soft caress of the trade winds and the sensuous fragrance of the tropical night brings to me the same feeling of tranquility, repose and mutuality of spirit that I knew in my earlier Hawaiian years. So if I fail to do all of things I promised to do, and do not visit all of the people I promised to see during my ten-day visit here, I know you will understand and forgive me. I am again involved in an old love affair, one that began thirty years ago; as with a well-loved woman, Hawaii's favors are irresistible. But I do want to write you frequently during our journey to England by the back way, so to speak, to share my hibiscus happenings and observations. These letters will be poor pay for the stay-at-home job of minding our Los Angeles State and County Arboretum hibiscus project. Baby-sitting for a thousand hibiscus seedlings and a sizable "stud farm" of parent stock is a real chore. Andy, you have promised to graft in all of the scion wood I send along from foreign parts, under official permit. I'll try to be selective, but you know me when I have a sharp knife and a new hibiscus crosses my path! Also, I hope to get off the seat of my swim trunks long enough to do some more research on the history of hibiscus in the Pacific area. About all we know is that Captain James Cook found a double red which his botanist called H. flora plena - double flowered hibiscus - in Tahiti when he made his first visit there in1769. Early explorers also saw this species in Tonga, the Marquesas, and other Pacific island groups settled by the Polynesians. E.D. Merrill, great Pacific botanist, calls it "a pre-Magellan, man-introduced ornamental species from the West", referring, of course, to the East Indies. Banks and Solander - the latter having been Captain Cook's botanist - recorded the double red in their journals as the species H. rosa-sinensis, for Linneaus has so classified it in 1753. This same double red was the first flower in this classification to be described in European horticultural literature, having been called Ketmia Javanica by Gilbert Miller, who is said to have been the first to grow H. rosa-sinensis in Europe in 1731. He described the double red in an early edition of his Gardener's Dictionary. Ketmia is an old name for hibiscus, yet I have seen no reference as to its being a native of Java, as the name would imply.