Tezula Plants has been a lifelong adventure with my passion for plants having started at a very young age. By the age of 9 I was hopelessly in love with orchids and pretty much anything that produced blooms. I remember spending a huge amount of time reading books and driving other orchids growers nuts bombarding them with questions, and soaked up every word. What fascinated me the most as I got older was how some of the principles had changed over time and how some had just faded into obscurity, many of which never should have. I still read a great deal on modern gardening techniques and trends, but always try to look at the big picture, trying my best to weed out what is just marketing hype so as to provide my collection the very best I can.
Hibiscus came fairly late into the big picture for me. I was lecturing on African epiphytic orchids out of state when I received an invitation from a fellow orchid grower to have a look at their African orchid collection. As I had the time, I thought it would be fun and stopped by. I knew I was in big trouble when I was more impressed with the hibiscus planted around his greenhouse than the plants in his greenhouse! I could not wait to get home so I could start my homework on them, it was the longest weekend of my life!
Well, that was over 10 years ago, and hibiscus are just as close to my heart as are my orchids. In reality, nothing makes me happier than being in a greenhouse with my plants. I quickly learnt hibiscus can be rather tricky to grow from seed, and so the experimentation began to find a way to grow them. After at least 4 years of trial and error, we came pretty close to 100% germination with our process. I was thrilled when the plants started to bloom for me. The next step was to secure outstanding breeding parents and spend countless hours researching previous hybrids to get a better understanding of genetics. Well, it soon became clear there were very few golden rules to determine what the outcome of any hybrid would produce. That was frustrating, until my first hybrids bloomed and I was completely hooked. I remember staring in awe at one plant in particular just scratching my head asking myself "You're pink!....where did that come from, and those frills, and that pattern, and that leaf shape, and....." so the list went on!
We now pour over at least 100 different crosses from around the world per day trying to select the very best to offer you in return. We source our plants from some of the finest breeders as well as new and upcoming breeders producing some noteworthy hybrids. More than 99% of the plants we sell are sold before we get to see them bloom, and we strongly urge everyone to please share pictures of their purchases with us as it greatly helps us determine what to focus on when selecting future selections.
Quality for us is of utmost importance, and we will never sell a plant we would not feel comfortable receiving ourselves, that is our unwavering golden rule. Our plants are grown outdoors and seasoned to handle any new growing condition they are placed in, so there will be the occasional rough looking leaf. Even then, we will still email you a picture of that rough looking leaf to make sure you are completely satisfied. We used to grow our plants in climate controlled greenhouses with amazing results, but moving those plants into any other growing condition put them in shock and set them back for weeks. We took a step back from modern technology in this instance to ensure you received the happiest plants possible.
We are still small but growing by the day. We have had plenty of opportunities to become a large sprawling nursery but that is not what I want. Every plant that leaves our nursery has been planted by me, inspected by me on a weekly basis and nurtured by me. There is a fine line between having a nursery that is your passion and having a nursery that is your business, this is my lifelong passion.
