By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Wow! Look! There must be hundreds of flowers on that plant, but who’s counting? Well, at least two people are — Doug and his wife from Montgomery County sent me a photo of their amazing native hibiscus plants putting out piles of flowers the size of dinner plates.

This plant is also called ‘Rose Mallow’ or ‘Swamp Mallow,’ even though it’s happy enough to grow in average soil. As of two weeks ago, Doug and his wife already had 680 blooms on their red hibiscus and 785 blooms on their white one.

You might ask yourself, why count the blooms? But here’s a better question – why don’t you have one of these traffic-stopping sensations of summer splendor growing in your yard that comes back every year with hundreds of flowers from summer to fall?

Go see if you can find yourself one of our native Hibiscus moscheutos on sale, and plant it in a sunny spot so that, next summer you can be counting your blooms – and your lucky stars – for having such a flower fountain in your yard.