A bit too late...

Has it ever happened to you that a particular plant, new to you and your garden, made up it's blooming mind a bit too late? Exactly when cold weather sets in and kills everything?
Well, it's not really that cold now, but we've already had a couple of nights in the below zero degrees.

Here's two that I really wanted to see what they bloom like.

A hardy Hibiscus (which was a bit too small this summer, so there's another chance next year).
I knew the bud wouldn't open, so I gave it a hand. 

And a Calotropis gigantea - grown from seed, in premiere. The buds formed quite a few weeks before the cold spell, but they were just stubborn and never opened.
Each time I would visit the garden, I would first go to check behind the thick and large leaves.
Nothing!

I was curious anyway to see what the crown inside looks like.