Growing Ornamental Okra Or Annual Hibiscus In My Garden

It has been a long time since I have last posted about my garden plants. During the hot weather, some of my plants have suffered heat stroke and have dried up. I have not been able to do much gardening during the heat wave and lately I have been slowly clearing the weeds and tidying up the plants and garden.

My Bauhinia plants have been in a sorry state and I have to cut off the dried leaves and branches till almost bald. Fortunately, my Bauhinia plants have started to grow back new branches and leaves once again. Hopefully they will grow back to their former healthy state with abundant blooms like before.

These were my Bauhinia plants before the heat wave. They were lush and full of leaves and flowers. My friends will look out for these striking flowers whenever they come to visit me. Last week, 2 of my friends missed my house without these striking orange flowers to guide them.

ORNAMENTAL OKRA OR ANNUAL HIBISCUS

Today I want to share about a beautiful flowering plant in my garden. A friend gave me some seeds which I have sowed and when the baby plants grew, the leaves looked like the usual okra or ladies fingers leaves but smaller in size.

This plant didn't grow straight up but started to branch out.

And the reddish pink colour of the flower was different too. It is so pretty!

But on a closer look, this does look like a hibiscus flower!

And the fruit does look like okra or ladies finger!

But it remained at this size, 1.5 inch and grows no further.

Puzzled, I posted up on Facebook and seek the help of gardening experts. A big "Thank you" to Annie and Kathy who helped me identify this plant.

With the ID provided, I did some searching on the internet. Some of the common names for this plant is Musk Okra, Musk Mallow, Annual Hibiscus, Ornamental Okra and etc. Its scientific name is Abelmoschus Moschatus.

The flowers are like Hibiscus, very colourful and attractive. The plants are grown as ornamental plants.

The stems, leaves and seeds are hairy.

The leaves are usually 5 loped.

The seeds are in short hairy pods, miniature replica of the edible okra.

Some sites claimed that the young leaves, shoots and unripe seed pods are edible but I am not sure about it.

The seeds were once cultivated for aromatic oil or perfume.

A dried, matured hairy seed pod with small black seeds.

Propagation is through seeds or stem cuttings. I have not tried the stem cutting method.

This is an all year round flowering plant and it grows well in moist, well-drained soil with regular fertilizing.

And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers
that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow,
He will certainly care for you.
Why do you have so little faith?
(Luke 12:28, New Living Translation-NLT)