Easily one of the best show-stoppers in my garden summer after summer is this hibiscus ‘Moy grande.’ With the largest flowers recorded on a giant-flowered mallow, these blooms can get as big a 1′ across.  It gets its name from Dr. Moy of the San Antonio Botanical garden.  Many people think it’s a muy grande (meaning VERY large, in Spanish, but it’s Moy, named after Dr. Moy). 

On any given summer day, I can have between 10-12 blooms on it at a time.  Today marked the first bloom day for this year, with two pretty pink blossoms.  I’ve been peering into the buds every day now for about a week, wondering when one would finally appear and I was rewarded for my impatience today!  They will continue to bloom well into the fall. 

My plant is in deer “fair game” territory, but it’s mature enough to be safe now.  The first few years after I planted it, it would get a nibble or two in early spring as it came back from the roots, but now it’s so hardy that the deer are no longer interested in it.

It tolerates alkaline soil and is hardy to Zone 5.  It loves FULL Texas sun and gets 5 x 5, though mine is about 6′ tall right now.  Fairly easy to grow from the seeds.