Coconut Cream Hardy Hibiscus: Butter-Yellow Saucers for Wet Beds

Coconut Cream hardy hibiscus brings one of the deepest creamy yellow tones available in hardy hibiscus. Its large, saucer-shaped flowers with smooth, overlapping petals open earlier than other pale yellow types and stand out against broad, dark green leaves. The plant grows into a rounded globe about 4 to 4½ feet tall and 4 feet wide, more upright than older cream varieties.

Full sun suits it, as it does lavender. But hardy hibiscus is thirsty, so it belongs in a watered border, rain garden or pond edge, not in the dry lavender bed.

Coconut Cream at a glance

Cream and purple across the garden

Soft yellow and lavender purple are a classic, gentle pairing, and Coconut Cream's butter-cream flowers make a fine late-season focal point viewed from the lavender beds. It opens in early July, just as lavender peaks, and keeps going into late summer, long after the lavender is cut.

Give each plant its own conditions. Plant the hibiscus in a border you water regularly, at the edge of a pond or in a rain garden, with the lavender up on drier, leaner ground nearby. A sunny path between the two works nicely. Use the Companion Plant Planner to place the wet and dry beds.

Planting and care

• Light: full sun gives the most flowers.
• Soil: poor to fertile is fine, as long as it never dries out for long.
• Water: generously in hot spells, when flowering slows and leaves wilt if the soil gets dry.
• Spring: it often does not emerge until late May or June. Mark the spot and resist the urge to dig.
• Pests: Japanese beetles, aphids and sawfly larvae are the usual suspects. Hand-pick beetles in the cool of the morning.
• Cutting back: cut woody stems to a few inches in late fall or early spring.

Placing a four-foot globe

At four feet in every direction, Coconut Cream works as a specimen at a bed's corner, as a summer screen along a patio or in the middle to back of a sunny, moist border. Its rounded shape fills space the way a shrub would, then dies back to the ground each winter. The flowers do not last when cut, so enjoy them on the plant, where hummingbirds and bees will find them too.

Plug tray or bare root

Coconut Cream is offered as a 72-cell plug tray and as a bare root plant. See each product page for current availability, or visit the Wholesale Hub.

Frequently asked questions

How is it different from older cream hibiscus?

It has a deeper creamy yellow color, opens earlier than other pale yellow types and grows more upright.

Can it share a bed with lavender if I water carefully?

It is not worth the risk. The steady moisture hibiscus needs would keep lavender roots too wet. Keep them in neighboring beds.

Keep exploring

• Coconut Cream Hardy Hibiscus 72-Cell Plug Tray
• Coconut Cream Hardy Hibiscus Bare Root Plant
• Companion Plant Library
• Companion Plant Planner