b'Pictured above is the first blue-flowering hybrid with dark foliage produced by Malinowski and his team. and breeder at Texas A&M Agrilife. Bythan Malinowski had imagined. theyve found some good success with it. profession, Im not a plant breeder, but IFrom there, Malinowski met with Brown Currently, there are 30-40 lines in evalua-could use my knowledge in plant physi- and learned how breeding programstion for potential commercialization. ology in my cool-season forage grassworked in the United States and at TexasHowever, Malinowski says getting to breeding program. Hibiscus breedingA&M Agrilife, and if hed be willing to addthis point only seemed easy because was actually something that I started inhibiscus breeding as a part of his program.of how much access theyve had to the my backyard. Initially, I expanded the amateur hibis- germplasm he created.Malinowski says his initial desire tocus breeding to backyards of my friends,In 2010, I wanted to create new colors breed hibiscus came from the idea thatSteve Brown and Dr. William Pinchak offor winter hardy hibiscus, he says. My he wanted some colorful flowers in hisTexas AgriLife, he says. It became a partdream was of a blue hibiscus, and within backyard. He thought there was potentialof my program in 2010, and we plantedthree years, we were able to breed a in making a winter-hardy hibiscus with athe official plots in Vernon. purple-blue hibiscus. Based on that plant, color other than red, pink and white.Every year since then, we plant aboutwe were able to develop around 20 blue One of my colleagues, the late Steve2,000 hybrid winter hardy hibiscuses, andflowering lines.Brown who was the former director ofevery fall we pick around 30-40 hybrids.He says these flowers range anywhere the Texas A&M AgriLife Foundation Seed,From there, the hybrids are disclosedfrom silver to blue to dark purple. saw a photo of my flowers in my office,to the Texas A&M Office of TechnologyTwo are on the market as of 2018, he says. I jokingly said I have very niceCommercialization. Malinowski says inBleu Brulee and Cordon Bleu, and there flowers, right? Brown thought that my2018, J Berry Nursery of Grand Saline,are plenty of other blue lines in evalu-winter-hardy hibiscuses could have hugeTexas, commercialized the first eightation, Malinowski says. The first blue value as a breeding program.cultivars under the series trademarkcultivar we developed was in 2012 called But this joke led to something biggername Summer Spice Hibiscus, andthe Blue Angel. It was blue in shade, but 20/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2020'