Quote:
Originally Posted by BritParrothead
My hibiscus plants are now behaving very strangely. One is just about 12 inches tall, the other about 3 feet tall. The biggest has lots of leaves and looks really good, the other not so much. No sign of any buds or flowers yet.
They are both treated the same, fed and watered at same time! Plenty of sun too.
Any ideas, anyone??
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Good morning, BritParrothead,
I just cannot resist a conversation about gardening. Even though you are in England and I am in Ohio and most of the readers here are in Florida, we gardeners tend to pick right up and talk about this stuff.
Now, about those two plants of yours, I cannot give advice specific to hibiscus. But when you said what you said about how you have treated them both the same, giving them all the attention they need, I just have to say that brought to mind "Nature vs. Nurture."
Nature vs. Nurture??????
Well, at risk of sounding like I am completely bonkers, that question applies to plants just like it applies to people. It remains a mystery in a lot of cases.
I am the mother of an only child, Boomette, and so I cannot apply the question directly, but I know so many people who have kids who have all been treated exactly the same and yet those kids are so different. Some overachievers, alongside siblings who drive their parents nuts trying to figure out what's going on. They have all been treated the same. Same house. Close in age. Same routines. All that stuff.
The point is, I think you have a case of Nature with that hibiscus that is behaving badly. But it sounds like it is showing a little potential. So maybe patience will pay off and time will give you the reward. But who knows? Just like with kids.
There is a parallel that I see between what we see with gardening and with human nature, er nurture, er nature??? Ohhh, you know what I mean.
And, btw, BritParrothead, I have to digress here........ I just have to say that you Brits are the gardening masters. And you gave the world that wonderful English cottage garden style, with its under plantings and its colors, and its incomparable look that might appear to be a little wild sometimes but knows exactly what it's after. I try so hard in my Cincinnati yard to make it look like the English do in those cottage-style gardens.
Boomer