Exclusive Nestlebrae Hibiscus

 

Cutting-grown plants became available again from late November 2023. New listings will appear and change in this section of the website as plants become available, or are sold.
In time many different new selections will be offered, but only a few plants of each. I am not a wholesaler supplying bulk orders.
The price for Nestlebrae Exotics plants is $35 each, or 3 plants for $90
[They can be 3 different flowers, or all the same if I have enough plants of that chosen sort. It’s your choice from what I have listed on this website.]

Yes, I can send plants to you.
I use Aramex Couriers. The plants must go into a box. It can hold up to three plants [that is, hibiscus plants]. Price indication: $10 for a box, and the courier charge in 2023/24 to deliver a box in Auckland, for example, is about $27 approximately.
Also, I usually come to Auckland from Kerikeri once a month. I can often bring plants with me for you- if you can meet me in Grey Lynn in central Auckland where I stay. Then you don’t need a box for the plants, and no courier fees, so that there is only a single $10 charge to you.

You can also pick them up directly from me at my home, but you must make an arrangement with me beforehand. Click on “Contact” near the top right side of any of my website pages to send me a message. To see where I live, click on the map besides “Where I am” at the foot of any page on the website.

 

And I should add that there are also a relatively small number of plants that I didn’t import seeds for, or select from seedlings I’d grown.  They include traditionally available plants on the New Zealand hibiscus market in mainstream stores, now or in the past. Look for them in the section called just “Hibiscus” on this website. And they are just $25 each.

 

 

*I am trialling many plants outdoors now, and I have other promising ones still indoors. In 2008 I started my experimentation with new seeds from good breeders living overseas. My aim has been to choose the better ones of my new flowers, and eventually offer them for sale, accompanied by a brief description and a photo.

*Some of my new plants will not be given a longer trial. There will be nothing wrong with them as hibiscus flowers, but if they overlap too much with the look of the flowers on the plants that I am already growing and keeping, then I will sell them.

Space is limited, and choices have to be made!

Each such plant will be unique. If you buy one, then you can call it after anything or anybody you want to: a friend; your wife; Mum; your aunt who gardens; other people who matter in your life, male or female; whatever!  $60 each.

* I am looking to choose ones with these characteristics:

-reasonably vigorous;

-the flowers present themselves well on the plant- i.e. they don’t hang down so that you can’t see them properly.

 

Here are some of my plants that had been in the ground for several years when I took the pictures. Flowering was definitely strengthening as the plants put on some bulk.

This is ‘Jane Verbitsky’. (There are several entries about her, and the others, in the Flower of the Month section of this website.)

 

‘Miku Abe’ was named after a very good Japanese wwoofer we had on South Kaipara Head at an earlier stage of Nestlebrae Exotics.

 

‘Strawberries and Chocolate’ is starting to look as active as a Whittakers chocolate factory!

 

A Summer picture of ‘John Prince’, across from my kitchen window.

 

Here’s a photo of the human version of John Prince

And here’s a photo of an art work by Kerikeri artist Valerie Hunton which first went public at her 80th birthday show at Kaan Zamaan gallery in Kerikeri in early 2016. It was painted after I’d brought her many new hibiscus flowers to focus on. She called it ‘Portrait of John Prince’.

 

On the other hand…

And here’s an example of one which will never come to anything in our climate. Very big flowers (over 10inches/25cm in diameter) are usually too floppy, in my experience, They don’t have the inherent strength in the petals to look any good. When affected by stormy and windy weather it’s clear they just won’t do. This one has basic good looks, but it’s not fit to be a garden subject. Others have never had the strength, even under plastic, to present all the petals well. They can be even a lot worse than this large and distinctive red outdoors. I’m not releasing ones like this. It’s actually the flower in front of ‘Marilyn’ at the very start of this website! It turns out that I was just very lucky that day to find a perfect flower in front of the garden statue.

 

Exclusive Nestlebrae Hibiscus for Sale

 

October 2022 update note re availability of Nestlebrae hibiscus.  

Please read this note so you are not disappointed

Hello : here is my standard sort of response to inquirers about hibiscus.
Hibiscus in the bigger stores in Kerikeri do not appear as new plants till the end of November or in early December. There are very good reasons for this.  Hibiscus come from distinctly hotter climates than we have, and they also are not specifically bred for New Zealand conditions by good breeders overseas.
Many, (far too many!), people are misled by the English origins of so many of our gardens and gardeners. In our winters and in the earlier part of spring (which begins around September 21st…not, as so many people think, at the start of September), hibiscus are in minimal growth. The complex modern flowers lose their full colours and appearances, and any flowers that emerge are very small compared to summer and the first half of autumn. There is an illustration of this fact early on in the ‘Hibiscus’ introductory section of my website. Click on the word “Products” at the top left hand side of any website page, and then choose “Hibiscus” from the drop down menu. I could produce scores of illustrations of the same winter-summer comparison from others of my hibiscus plants.
 
My intention has been to follow the reality of the above, and put my new hibiscus plants on sale from about the last week of November.
You can order hibiscus plants from my lists on the website once they are available again.
Place orders by emailing me. If you want me to courier plants to you, then a three of four plant box ($10) would be sent by Aramex Couriers to you. I also pass on the courier delivery charge. For that I need your full delivery address, plus your contact phone number. Once the plants are with the couriers I then send to the customer a precise charge for plants, box, and courier, plus my Nestlebrae Exotics bank account number.
From late December 2023 I am moving the more advanced hibiscus seedlings back into being on sale again.

 

Amigo’s #1 Friend

Amigo was the name of the best cat I ever owned. A sleek black gentleman who lived his own life, roamed a lot, yet was still original, personality plus, and very friendly (on his terms). An outdoorsman. I didn’t manage to bring his plant up north with me. I do have two other plants from seeds in the same pod. This one is pretty good, especially if you like things like ‘Smoky Mountain’, which was a commercial release in Aotearoa some years ago. It’s like a paler, less assertive, version of ‘Amigo’. But still very, very nice.   In stock? YES


A Small Furnace

I put this into trials outdoors here at Nestlebrae some years ago. It’s a reasonably strong grower, but the flower, not the plant, is smallish in size. I thought I wasn’t going to offer it for sale. What has made me change my mind is the intensity of the colour combination. That furnace is small, but it’s roaring!   In stock?  YES 


Autumn Fires

I was trying to find a name for this one in March-April 2021.  Early Autumn. Dry, and browns everywhere. Maybe even still with a normal dryish summer ban on fires outdoors.  This flower at last focused my name search on the view over this plant, and across the nearby properties.  It became ‘Autumn Fires’, and was consolidated as an apt choice when, about a fortnight later, right in the line of sight over the top of the bush in question, a neighbour about 40 metres away had a, now legal again, fire smoking away. And, yes, that’s an established palm on the boundary behind it showing the proclivity of Queen Palms to lose good contact for their roots in the ground. We’re still working on that one.

In stock?  YES


Berry Good, Sonny

Sonny (aka Syd Stallings) is an experienced, and good, American hibiscus hybridiser from whom I imported many seeds over the years. I have saved many of the plants that grew from his seeds, and quite a few are amongst the offerings on this website. Sonny crossed two of his plants to create this one. One parent was ‘Blackberry Jam’ and the other was ‘Blueberry’. You won’t need to ponder for long to work out where the name for this moreish little dessert piece comes from! It’s not the strongest of growers for me, so I’m waiting for more potential wood for cuttings.

In stock?  NO


Blue Minnie

I called this ‘Blue Minnie’ for a few years, but it’s really a small flower (about 4 inches/10cm across) rather than a miniature. At the time I updated this entry I began to call it ‘Royal Flush’. I don’t recall why, and I’ve had second thoughts.  It has consistently proved to hold many flowers at a time once it gets going in early Autumn, and we’ve renamed it once again..  Then in Autumn 2023 I reassessed the situation and have gone back to my original, more accurate, name for it.  It better represents the flower. Rather charming and cheerful.   In early autumn 2023 one small branchlet grew a sport. I’ll be watching that bit of wood with interest!            In stock?  YES


Bruce

Here’s a secret. I have really minimal interest in pop and rock music. After a couple of years in my midteens I gave up on the hit parades of the day, and grew an interest in bebop and modern jazz from the late 50s and on into the early 60s. Then I got deeper and deeper into Romantic and Post-Romantic serious (“classical”) music thru to my own era. There is one big exception. You work it out.

The flower is tough in our weather, holds its colour well, and sometimes has white spots like this and sometimes doesn’t. The flower in the photo is not quite fully open. In stock?  NO


Christine Wolf

In about our last three years on South Kaipara Head we had wwoofers from time to time. [People, usually young, volunteering to work for half the day on properties, preferably organic ones, in return for board. A way of seeing not just the world, but meeting some of the people in the real/non-tourist Aotearoa.] Rosemary’s idea to join, and it was a very good one.

One of the very best wwoofers we had gave me the name of this flower. From eastern Germany, she was a pleasure to know, a good helper and worker, stayed four times with us, drove around the South Island in a little old car one of our daughters had, and I sometimes said Christine was rather like “a third daughter”.

In stock?  YES


Christmas Eve 2011

I moved here in October 2011. The first ever flower on this bush came out, to my delight, on … well, you look at the name I gave it! Has continued to please me very much, and it grows outside one of the bedroom windows at my place. White flowers are not as common in hibiscus as many people seem to expect. This is a lovely example, and note that it’s not quite completely white.    In stock?  NO


Cindy

I’m still manoeuvring to get a better photo of this one outdoors where it grows tall.  In the meantime this rather distant shot will do.

In stock?   YES


Copper Iguana

The parents were ‘Copper King’ crossed (in America) with ‘Iguana’. Do that, and you’ll get something like this flower. ‘Copper Iguana’ has a blurry pink centre. Some of the other results of this cross were variously and more strongly coloured in the throat and in the markings. This one blends in more sedately. Small-medium flower, about 15cm/6inches across.

In stock?   NO


Deep Purple

 

In Stock?  YES


Devilish Look

This one dates well back into my earlier years here at Nestlebrae North. It was one of my great moments here (and there’ve been a number of them) that occurred when I walked into my original big plastic house, not knowing that the particular plant, amongst many new seedlings, had a swollen first flower on it. To my surprise it had opened a “Wow!” of a completely new flower.

Here’s part of a descriptive note that I wrote about it in 2012. ‘Devil’s Eye x Stormy Rainbow’. Yes, certainly some sort of underworld eye! Bright deep acid yellow going into a sort of dull sooty green with a white ring around deep burgundy red in the centre.”  And the second photo is another look at how I completed a section on this website. (Click on ‘About Us’ at the top of any page, and look in the Nestlebrae Today section at its end.)     In stock?   YES


Diane Ferguson

Diane lived near us during our first phase of Nestlebrae Exotics on South Kaipara Head. She sold some plants, and was a  knowledgeable member of the main plant group that my thenpartner Rosemary was very active in.  She and her husband moved to Kerikeri, downsizing the demands of the gardens, and closer to a good country town than they had been. Unfortunately she became very ill and died while still in their first year in Kerikeri.  I named this striking new red flower after showing it to her, and getting her permission to give it her name.           In stock?  YES


Duchess’s Daughters’ Hat

 

In stock?  YES


Eleanor’s Christmas

In the week before Christmas 2019 my younger daughter Eleanor paid me a very nice visit. My Yumberry plants had their first real crop. And another thing happening then was the appearance of nice flowers of this hibiscus. Hence the name.  More intense oranges were strongly visible in the flowers, and that look then fades over the next couple of days to a lighter, but still very good, pattern and colour display.      In stock?  YES


Far Blue

 

This is not my most inspired name for a new variety, I do admit. Nevertheless, the flower has a low key, but distinct, attraction about it, and many people respond. I put a number of “blue” plants on the back edge of the garden that is to my right if I sit on the swing seat near my back door, mostly before dinner. Plants such as this show colours of a palette of blue, purple, grey, and brown. You don’t get the bright red-orange-yellow flowers from this group. This one is at the far end of these plantings. I needed one day to name it quickly, and thus  ‘Far Blue’ arrived. It seems to flower fairly freely.        In stock?  YES


Fiery Garter

 

A medium sized flower (15cm/6inches) that is yellow on the rim, moving through orange into reddish tones more centrally. For me, this is an old one in terms of my engagement with hibiscus while I still lived on South Kaipara Head. Its first flowering was right back in 2009, and it was probably the first bright yellow-red flower I’d produced from imported seeds. The parental cross was ‘Mini Skirt’ x ‘Wedding Day’, so I envisaged a rather sassy bride with a ‘Fiery Garter’.  More recently I’ve come to see it as generally not so intense in the yellows.   In stock?  NO


Florida Giant

This is the very large flower that I use to finish up the introductory part of this section of the website that you are reading right now. It normally doesn’t display well, but it does catch the eye of the visitor because of the large spread of the flower.  You’ll need to present it on a flat surface rather than in a small vase to get a better sense of it.

Go back to the opening discussion in this section on Nestlebrae flowers. You’ll see, if you track down, a photo of the plant in heavy display mode.

In stock?  YES


Francesca T

In September 2014 I made this flower the “Flower of the Month’ (see  the record of this in the website section on Flowers of the Month).  She was my first yoga teacher, and I really enjoyed her classes, despite my aged awkwardness.  It was a good choice, and the flower itself is a very good example of a hibiscus breeder creating an excellent “rainbow” type.

In stock?   YES


Golden Girl

   

I was looking for a really good flower to name after a particularly close friend. When I came across this one day in the plastic house area with newly raised seedling hibiscus, I knew I’d found what I wanted. So, battered by long exposure to the wild and wet weather of early February 2022, the photo shows she really does stand up to life and the elements. On good days too, definitely a friend to lots of people, and to lots of bees it turns out.   In stock?    NO


Green With Envy

This one is a nice and subtle joining of colours.  For me it seems to be one of the slower ones to come into flower in Autumn. I have it outside, planted in the ground, and it is with others near it that are more vigorous outdoors around it.  So, give it a warm spot, or grow it under plastic or glass.

In stock?   NO


Gym Bunny

Very keen Northland hibiscus collector Steve Trotter was visiting Nestlebrae one day, and out the front of an old corrugated iron shed painted green was a plant in flower that we paused by.  Amongst a range of things in its several rooms was some basic weight training equipment that I brought with me when I moved to the Far North. When I was younger, for decades I did some weight training.  [I’ll draw a veil over my current “retirement” performances when I do manage to get myself out there in the morning before breakfast.]

I said that flower had never been named up to then, and Steve at once came up with the rather apt ‘Gym Bunny’.  I quickly seized his suggestion.

In stock?  NO


Reminder (see the top of this page): all of the exclusive Nestlebrae hibiscus listed on this page are $35 each, or 3 for $90. I often won’t have three of a particular flower. Remember, I only deal in small numbers of each. And some of the entries are possibly now out of stock.

Another reminder: there are some more traditional plants on the New Zealand market in this website under just “Hibiscus” for $25 each.


Hey You!

I was aware of this in the sense it had had a few initial flowers late in 2022. Then one day I was in looking at the plants in the first area of my then newly reskinned plastic house. I happened to look across the area and there was a fairly clear sight line through the dozens of plants separating us. It was sharply evident in its colour and its simplicity.  It very plainly stood out and sought attention. And so it was named ‘Hey You!’, and I responded by going across the metres between us, admiring its impact from up close, and giving it the new name.   In stock?    NO


Incredibly Weird

I got this shot of the fully flowering performance of this variety one evening in late summer/early autumn in 2021.  It has grown a bit sparsely so far, but might get further in bushiness if it was planted in a less crowded spot, and fertilized more. While I was manoeuvring to carefully line things up the way I wanted to capture that moment I didn’t care about those things. Just that, there, strikingly, was this single flower in front of a Pitt Island Nikau.  A striking new warm climate ornamental in front of a palm that grows naturally further south of the Equator (in the Chatham Islands group) than any other palm on Earth.

In stock?  YES


Inner Light

Of all the new hibiscus hybrids that I’ve raised from seeds I brought into Aotearoa from about 2008 onwards, this one made me puzzle the hardest. Seen in the morning of first opening amidst the other new plants in my big plastic house there was something very striking and different about it. Then, if I went looking for it a day or two later it didn’t show up. Where had these flowers gone? One day I deliberately tagged a new flower. I found that does quite a fade, so that the intensity of the flower lessens, while still being a really different object amongst many other new hibiscus flowers.  [For a first account of the flower, look in the section on this website called “Hibiscus of the Month”, and find January 2022.]

In stock?  YES


Jane Verbitsky

In real life Jane was a long term and good colleague when I was teaching in the Politics Department at Auckland University. A little more of the story is told in the ‘Flower of the Month’ section of this website. (Click on ‘Products’ again; then on ‘Flower of the Month’: go back down to both April 2015 and May 2012 for more photos, and a little bit more of the history.)                In stock?  YES


John Prince

This was the first really good flower that I noticed after moving north in October 2011. I think it had a couple of flowers while I was still on South Kaipara Head, but I treated it as being as good as new. So I called it ‘Ness Road #1’.  It was that for several years, but I liked it so much, and it was on my new property, so I began to wonder if I could call it ‘John Prince’. That felt a bit too flashy a thing to do. I tried out the idea when I took 3 or 4 couples around the property over about 15 months. They all said something like “just do it! now!”. I did it. And gradually got used to the idea. No worries now!  A good medium size, great and distinctive clear colours, grows strongly outdoors, and displays plenty of flowers.    In stock?    NO


Lenny

In 2022-23 several films were released about a couple of very different people who had made very good careers out of conducting. Their names were the fictional ‘Tar’, and ‘Maestro’. The second of these, available in my local movie house in Kerikeri as I write these words in mid December 2023, is a look at part of the very active private and public lives of the once extremely visible American symphony orchestra leader, conductor, and composer Leonard Bernstein. I named a flower after him, and planted it out to observe it in its quiet growth here- quite a contrast to the real man’s life.  You can see more in the entry for August/September 2018 in the ‘Hibiscus of the Month’ section of this website.  The second of the photos is what it looks like when the intense colour of the newly opened flower fades.      In stock?   YES


Little Miss Delicate

I hardly need to explain the name of this one. I’ve kept a number of pinks from my efforts with imported seeds. None of them are quite like this one. Small, a bit flaky, with an individual look, it’s easy to distinguish it from the usual pink hibiscus flowers.

In stock?   YES


Marian’s Return

Our older daughter came back after her big trip to South America and Canada just as this was flowering for the first time. Rather complex colour scheme when closely studied. Big medium sized flower. Strong impact.


Midnight Lady

My friend Penelope named this one.  She said the tones of the colour reminded her of velvet evening dresses in the late 19th Century.

In stock?   YES


Miku Abe

A very nice young Japanese wwoofer who lived with us for some weeks before I came north to a new location near Kerikeri.  We got on well with her, and this flower was a recognition of that fact.

In stock?   YES


Mona Siegele

Another connection to a wwoofer. Mona was from eastern Germany and she was with a boyfriend who was Brazilian. The only language they in common was English, which they were still learning. Later on after their considerable time with us, they married outdoors on a Kiwi beach. Nice one!

In stock?   YES


Moorea Blue Queen

 

In stock?   YES


Mustard Greens

A smallish-medium sized, greenish edged, yellow-brown (i.e. a sort of mustard colour with greenish edging). Small red throat. It has been quite floriferous in a bed in my front lawn. Unusually coloured- definitely not your traditional NZ hibiscus. Lots of people I’ve showed around Nestlebrae North have rather liked it. Definitely different, but not in a challenging way.

In stock?   YES


Nana Moessner

A gorgeous large and vibrant mid-deep red with a darker centre. Light gold dusting along the edge of many petals. These petals are often large, and in the range of 22cm/8 1/2inches. Nana was a German wwoofer who was with us for a while, together with her husband Jan, at South Kaipara Head. They were excellent people whose company we both enjoyed.

In stock?   YES


Ness Road #2

This is the result of sprouting another seed from the same seed capsule which gave me’ Ness Road #1′.  In time ‘Ness Road #1’ was renamed ‘John Prince’. This flower, ‘Ness Road #2’ is a fine flower in its own right. It’s not as intense as ‘John Prince’. The main colour on the face of the flower is a nice milder brown/tan colour. Side by side, you can see the relationship between the two flowers. It’s a good standard size also.

In stock?   YES


Oni in Alaska

 

On the face of it this might seem like a strange name for a hibiscus I’ve raised from seed. The origins of the name are discussed on this website in the “Flower of the Month” section.

Take a look at the November 2014 entry to read about the connection to Oni. It’s a bit like a lovely softened rainbow compared to some of the other circular modern “rainbow” patterns.

The flower is clearly of the “rainbow” type. And the photo on the left is as clear a demonstration of that with this flower that I’ve seen. It hadn’t been open long to look like that. More typical is the softer look on the right.

Like many strongly coloured hibiscus it softens from quite an intense initial state on the morning on which it first opens.  See the third photo.

In stock?   NO


Orange Jessica

It was the plant of the month once upon a time. Some years later I can now offer plants for sale. The name is derived from those of the two parents.

In stock?   NO


Oranges and Lemons

I think we can all work out where the name came from!  It seems to be fairly hardy and productive for me.  The flowers hang on, and keep their shapes quite well. Mid-sized.     In stock?   YES


Pale Blue Flash

Very pleasant soft pale blue-purple and mauve colours, veining and flower centre being white. A small-medium flower in size. Part of the parentage is cv. ‘Electric Blue’, and my name for it draws on this fact.    In stock?   NO


Pink Minnie

A small flower, but not a true miniature. Also, it’s a double, and on a normal sized bush (so far) at my place. (compare ‘Blue Minnie’ above)

In stock?   YES


Premonition of Autumn

A good medium sized flower with yellow, orange, pink-red, grey with green hints, purple, and a burgundy centre. This first flowered for me as autumn was nearly happening, so the subdued colours fitted my mood.

In stock?   NO


Pretty in Pink

 

In stock?   YES


Purple Flush

In stock?   YES


Purple Haze

In stock?   YES


Purple Rain

 

In stock?   YES


Rosemary’s Favorite

She* says it might be succeeded now with all the new selections I’ve made, but this was her favorite at the time we left South Kaipara Head in late 2011. Flowering since 2015 for me at Waipapa.   *(my former partner, Rosemary)


Run Gabriel, Run!

This is a cross of ‘Gabriel’ with ‘Rumrunner’, a fact which led me to invent this name for it. It has a soft orange rim which evolves into a stronger pink as you go towards the centre. Then purple tones follow, and they lead into a very pale blue, ending centrally with a very strong and deep burgundy eye. Good parents contribute to this result.            In stock?  NO


Reminder (see the top of this page): all of the exclusive Nestlebrae hibiscus listed on this page are $35 each, or 3 for $90. I often won’t have three of a particular flower. Remember, I only deal in small numbers of each. And some of the entries may now be out of stock.

Another reminder: there are some more traditional plants on the New Zealand market in this website under just “Hibiscus” for $25 each.


Santa’s Cup of Tea

This is one of the earlier ones planted being near the house once I moved to Waipapa near Kerikeri. I’d had the arrival first Xmas marked by the first opening of ‘Christmas Eve 2011’.  A year or two later, running out of ideas for this one, I noticed that its parental names led on to this somewhat elaborate name.

In stock?   NO


Saving Grace

 

It’s s small flower, and it turned up on a plant that was just existing from year to year without flowering.  Then early in 2023 it did some flowering, presumably after better watering and fertilizing.  Its ‘Saving Grace’ turned out to be a rather nice combination of two distinct colours.

See what you think after it had made no impression on me at all for years.

In stock?   YES


Second Letterbox Pink

Amongst my very first plantings here after I moved in during early October 2011.   This was an unnamed one that I brought with me, so into the ground it went, the one 2nd closest to the starting point near the very front of the property where a bit of it comes out towards the roadway.  A pleasant pink flower.

In stock?   YES


Shadows on the Moon

The stronger colours of the first day fade, and then for several more days it has “shadows” on the normal (paler) face of the “moon”. About 17.5cm/7inches- i.e. a medium sized flower. It is a nice, relatively uncluttered flower given the range of tonings. Reddish in the central throat. And it bears flowers early and well for me.

In stock?   YES


Strawberries and Chocolate

At last: I have now listed this one for sale.  Back in the Flower of the Month on this website in July-August 2013 I wrote the words below, and they still will do to introduce it. Moreover, up above, in the introductory part of this current section you are reading, is a photo of this plant in full flowering.

“It’s Wimbledon Week as I write this, and what could be more appropriate (perhaps with some cream added) than a good dish of ‘Strawberries and Chocolate’? And here it is!”

$35  For the plant, not the Wimbledon version.             In stock?  YES


Summer’s Coming

I saw enough strength of colours in this flower when I first took it in visually in 2023 to think something like “we’ve begun moving beyond Spring”.

In stock?   YES


The Bronze Age

 

 

In stock?   YES


Toni’s Fave

 

In stock?   YES


Towering Inferno

This was the best of the strong yellow and red flowers from my early years of importing hibiscus seeds. It also grew very tall under plastic while still in a bag. The name came naturally then. $35

In stock?   YES


Violet Love Letters

Gorgeous violet flower with warm red brick edges for a few hours, edging fading quickly to a yellow-straw, pale brown, band. The name really fitted the flower, for me. The parent flowers were Moorea Violet Moon x M. Love Letter. Further, I had strong memories from being a small boy and seeing some mail that my mother still possessed from her oldest brother who died in France in the First World War. Colours on some of the mementoes reminded me of this. Yes, it’s out of stock, but if I can find a cutting grown one, and there is a chance, then I’ll get it back for myself, and for sale, as soon as I can. It was lovely.  [Late 2023….yes!  I do have one, so one day I definitely do want to offer this one again. Heck!  I really do want to see real flowers on a real plant of it again.]

In stock?   NO


Winter Sun

This was added March 2023. The unnamed plant had been growing in ground for 3 or 4 years and from time to time I had stopped and admired the paler and purer yellow of the colour. This contrasted it well with other yellow hibiscus that I was presenting for sale also. The other ones had stronger and deeper golden tones whilst still being “yellow”. It reminded me of winter sun on a clear blue day with no rain, and a hint of “cool temperatures tonight”. I was quite taken with it, and thus added it to my trials of my own plants raised from seeds I’d imported from hibiscus breeders.

In stock?   YES


Yes, Alexandra!

Named by my older granddaughter (to see the story, look in the “Hibiscus of the Month” section of this website).  Now, just after Xmas 2023, I have a few plants to sell for the first time.  There’s enough going on in the design of this flower to mark it out as different from the other yellows that I have.  The yellow tones just by themselves are quietly beautiful.

In stock?   YES


A reminder (see the top of this page): all of the exclusive Nestlebrae hibiscus listed on this page are $35 each, or 3 for $90. I often won’t have three of a particular flower. Remember, I only deal in small numbers of each. And a great deal of the entries are now out of stock. I am embarking on producing many new cutting grown hibiscus plants.

Another reminder: there are some more traditional plants on the New Zealand market in this website under just “Hibiscus” for $25 each.


Where I Am