 In July 1841 he met Joseph Dalton Hooker who, in his "Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania", mentions that Bidwill accompanied him "in my excursions round Port Jackson and impressed me deeply with the extent of his knowledge and fertile talents".Richard Clough considers Bidwill was the first to introduce plant breeding to Australia.Bidwill worked with both native and exotic plants, and in 1843, he released his first hybrid, which was a hybrid between two Australian plants – "Hibiscus splendens" and "H. heterophyllus" – which he named ‘"Hibiscus Sydneyi"’.