This morning was a delightful treat. Our tropical hibiscus that had been filled with green pods has just started blooming.
If you are looking for a beautiful shrub to add gorgeous flowers to your yard then you may just want to plant these.
They are very easy to care for and seem to do just great in full sun. We cut them down to the ground each winter and they come
back each year as a beautiful treat.
The beautiful shrub fills itself with lime green pod like bulbs that fill the shrub.
The leaves are a really pretty purple and aqua green.
After the shrub fills with these green pods they begin to grace us with loveliness as they unfold to the world.
They start to swell and puff out then little red and pink veins appear.
Then the magic happens and they begin to open 2 at a time.
The flowers just opened today so they are still lifting their heads up. The center piece will sit straight up and the
flower petals will pull back tighter. They certainly are a gorgeous sight.
Not only are they a beautiful sight they also have some wonderful health benefits.
Health benefits
The tea is popular as a natural diuretic; it contains vitamin C and minerals, and is used traditionally as a mild medicine.
Dieters or people with kidney problems often take it without adding sugar for its beneficial properties and as a natural diuretic.
A 2008 USDA study shows consuming hibiscus tea lowers blood pressure in a group of prehypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults. Three cups of tea daily resulted in an average drop of 8.1 points in their systolic blood pressure, compared to a 1.3 point drop in the volunteers who drank the placebo beverage. Study participants with higher blood pressure readings (129 or above) had a greater response to hibiscus tea: their systolic blood pressure went down by 13.2 points. These data support the idea that drinking hibiscus tea in an amount readily incorporated into the diet may play a role in controlling blood pressure, although more research is required.[9]
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis has a number of medical uses in Chinese herbology.[8]
In the Indian traditional system of medicine, Ayurveda, hibiscus, especially white hibiscus and red hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), is considered to have medicinal properties. The roots are used to make various concoctions believed to cure ailments such as cough, hair loss or hair greying. As a hair treatment, the flowers are boiled in oil along with other spices to make a medicated hair oil. The leaves and flowers are ground into a fine paste with a little water, and the resulting lathery paste is used as a shampoo plus conditioner.
