Random plant event: Hibiscus acetosella 'Brown Sugar' flower

The random plant events are almost happening faster than I can keep up with. By the time some of these posts get put up, the event will no longer even be happening.

This particular post is a follow-up to a previous post, where I noted that this plant had buds. A week later, we have the thrilling conclusion.

The above flower was going on Friday (23 Nov) when I left for work (about 7:45 AM), and had already deflated and shriveled by the time I came home for lunch (about 1:15 PM). So I literally only got one chance to see it. In my memory, the flower was more of a wine color -- darker than this, and with more purple, which may or may not have been the real situation.

There was a repeat performance today (Saturday 24 Nov):


The color in this second picture is a little closer to my perceptions of the flower yesterday. It remains to be seen how long this second one is going to last.

UPDATE: Not long at all, it turns out. The second flower opened around 6 or 7 AM, and it had closed up again by 10:30 AM. The first one fell off the stem in the same time frame, crushing hopes that it might re-open.