Best Of Charles Atiu’s 2014 – Mission Impossible

We are closer and closer to the New Year’s Eve. A new beginning for all of us. With hope and faith, with love and forgiveness. It is also that time of year when we want to make a review of what we did, what was right or wrong. For me, this year was the Moorea Hibiscus Year. Almost every day of it I tried to present to you the genial, hard and restless work of the genius that is Master Charles Atiu. It was a huge pleasure and a great honour for me, and I want to especially thank my best friend and mentor, Mrs. Monica Trușcă, who’s work was at least as important as mine to make this dream come true. This is why it is so hard to try and choose only SOME of this year’s blooms, instead of ALL, because they all are equally beautiful to me. I called this task MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and I just picked one or other from them, because I couldn’t choose…

I hope it was pleasant for you too, to see, day by day, how the Moorea seeds transform into the most wonderful blooms that God ever create. I find appropriate to insert a quote from Master Charles Atiu’s book, that, for me, represents the quintessence and the ars poetica of his creation.

My name is Charles Atiu . I was born on an island in the Pacific, where I still live today, surrounded by thousands of hibiscuses that I created myself. I’m just a man who wants to share this passion that became a way of life .

For years I traveled through gardens in Tahiti , the main island of the Archipelago and Moorea , the island where I was born and where I live , and I noticed in my wanderings that the hibiscuses on both islands had the same colors. I asked myself why is there no other colors, to make them more attractive flowers. I decided to try to change things ! While I collected the few local varieties available, I found that there are others around the world , and having the means at hand , I ordered about 30 varieties that were the starting point for my future research. Plant propagation by grafting, cuttings and layering had no secrets for me, but I have to admit – hibiscus hybridization was a completely new thing.

In those days, the only viable source of information was a book called Palmer ‘s Hibiscus . It was exactly what I needed for what I had to learn. And I learned it by heart. Every day for months, I studied it until it became a part of me. Somehow, it became my Bible. And finally, once I felt this, I could start my life as a hibiscus hybridizer .

Excerpt from Charles Atiu – HIBISCUS – A passion dedicated life

JANUARY 2014 – index Moorea

FEBRUARY 2014 – index Fabulous

 

MARCH 2014 – index GMMA

 

APRIL 2014 – index HMMA

MAY 2014 – index IMMA

 

JUNE 2014 – index JMMA

 

JULY 2014 – index KMMA

 

AUGUST 2014 – index LMMA

 

SEPTEMBER 2014 – index NMMA

 

OCTOBER 2014 – index OMMA

NOVEMBER 2014 – index PMMA

 

DECEMBER 2014 – index QMMA