This is a fascinating observation in Pankhuri - The Garden ! When a hibiscus plant naturally bears two different colored flowers, and grafting is not involved, there are a few possible scientific explanations:
🌸 1. Genetic Mutation (Sport)
A "sport" is a natural genetic mutation in a branch or bud that causes it to produce a flower with different characteristics (like color).
In your case, the original plant may have been Peach, and a mutation caused a branch to produce Red flowers — or vice versa.
This is rare but not unheard of in hibiscus plants.
🌿 2. Chimera
A plant chimera is a single plant that contains two or more genetically different types of tissue.
These tissues grow together, and in hibiscus, this can lead to flowers of different colors on different parts of the same plant.
It's like two plant varieties merged into one at a cellular level — without human interference.
🌱 3. Rootstock Sucker
If this plant was ever propagated from cuttings or tissue culture, it’s possible that a different hibiscus cultivar was used as a rootstock, and it sent up a shoot, which is now flowering.
Even if the plant was not grafted in your garden, it could have originated from a nursery where this happened.
🌼 4. Environmental Triggers
In rare cases, environmental factors like soil pH, nutrient availability, or light exposure may slightly influence flower pigmentation.
However, this would not normally change red to cream/yellow — so this is unlikely to be the sole reason in your case.
🔍 What I Can Do Now:
Trace which branches produce each flower color.
I might notice that one branch always produces red flowers, and another produces cream, supporting the sport or chimera theory.
Its a wonderful world - full of surprises !!
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