[villages07]

In the one major freeze we had this winter, our 3 hibiscus bushes took a real hit...all the leaves fell off. After it got warmer, we pruned them back...the bushes now have lots of lush green leaves and new growth, but, no buds or blooms.

Is there anything we should be doing to stimulate blooms? Food, water, trimming????

Anyone else out there in TV land with damaged Hibiscus that has fully come back to life?

[Rokinronda]

I have several hibiscus. The freeze this year didn't damage mine, (I put blankies on them) but the previous 2 "winters" did. You did the right thing, by cutting them back. Don't worry, the blooms will appear, just takes a bit longer. Feeding may help, also. I use a time release fertilizer for flowering shrubs once a year.

[graciegirl]

You handled your Hibiscus like I do any shocked plant. Sometimes it is freezing and last year the drought was cruel to a Japanese maple. It will come back and bloom I am sure. My little tree this year has never looked prettier, but it has been cool and rainy, just what it likes.

[swrinfla]

07:

Same story here, although mine have a few buds today. The greenery is lush, which makes me much less sorry-for-myself that I didn't cover them last winter!

Even after most of four winters here, I still chuckle when the Orlando tv weather guys yell and scream about covering your plants, even when they're only predicting 28-29 degrees. Below zero, yes, but barely below freezing? Nah!

SWR

[beady]

07:

I have experienced that problem in the past growing hybiscus indoors in New England. They would bloom till Christmas, then begin to look very grim. Granted not from frost damage just exhaustion.I would cut them back severely and water them faithfully. Around the end of March they recovered and greened out ,as yours are now. At that point I would feed them with a bloom enhancing fertilizer. I was always rewarded with beautiful blooms for the remainder of the year. I think that will work for you.

[samhass]

Beady is correct. Go buy some "Bloom Burst". They like it!

[Villages Kahuna]

We have five different varieties of hibiscus at our house. One variety, Snow Queen, didn't make it thru the slight freeze last winter and had to be replaced. The replacement plants have nice foliage, but no buds or flowers. On the other end of the spectrum, our "white with dark maroon centers" plants that we bought at Porter's are thriving. Today both of those plants have about two dozen beautiful flowers each and plenty more buds. Our yellow plants looked pretty sick after last winter's nip, but while they haven't recovered to anywhere near the size of the white ones, they are also blooming. Another variety, with green, red and pink varigated foliage look healthy, but no flowers. Two of our three pink tree hibiscus are doing fine and are just ready to burst forth with flowers. The third one will need to be replaced. I use a "rooting and blooming" fertilizer, about 10-60-10 as I recall, applying it with a watering can every couple of weeks.

Why can't nature be precisely predictable? It would make old engineers like me a lot happier.

[renielarson]

My hibiscus didn't appear to have made it (was a youngun)...looked deader than a doornail. Not there to nurse it back to health and not liking what I saw, I replaced it last April. Hopefully upon my return next month, the new plant will be thriving...at least I hope so.

[Lil Dancer]

I planted my hibiscus up near the house (block and stucco) in kind of a protected area on the southwest side. During freeze warnings, I put an old sheet over it, and never had a freeze problem. Its really beautiful by our entryway. If you have a bunch of them, I'm sure it would be too much work to cover, but we didn't mind covering the one plant.

[villages07]

since I started this thread...a postscript:

I'm sitting here in my office looking out the window a tall, thriving, blooming hibiscus plants. I can see at least 12-15 blooms on the 3 plants. They were a little slower to bloom than other neighbors' whose hibisci were not frost damaged. But they have fully recovered. Gotta love this Florida climate!!!

[Hyacinth Bucket]

Hi, I accidentally deleted an email I received. The question was about the Lawn and Garden service that we have.

We do not have a contract with her for any of the services she does. When we are in TV we do, what she normally does.

There are no annual contracts for weeding - cost is $10 per month

Pest control is $20 per month

Pruning, trimming and clean up is billed at $40 per hour, but you are charged in 15 minute increments.

Fertilizer application is based on actual quantities used.

They all sell trees and plants. I found the cost of there plants lower than in some of the nurseries I visited while in TV.

Fernview Farm - Sandra and James Harrison
352 245 7905 email fernviewnursery@aol.com

i think she has been invited to speak this November at the Garden Clubs - one in Hacienda Center.

Hope this helps.

HB

[Boomer]

I know my question does not belong in this thread, but it seemed silly to start a new one even though my hibiscus is in Ohio and is not freezing at all. But this seems like a thread where people know about hibiscus so I will ask anyway.

I was given one as a gift a couple of months ago. I cut the bottom out of the pot and planted it in the pot. This was to make it a little easier to bring inside in winter if it makes it. I planted it in front of a mass of ornamental grasses.

It was doing fine, but then the ornamental grasses started to pick on the hibiscus. (Karly Rose is the ornamental grass - a great beauty that gets around 3 feet tall and keeps its rosey pink plumes for a very long time.) I like to mass ornamental grasses and then just step back. And that hot color of the hibiscus with 5 Karly Rose ornamentals singing backup was pretty gorgeous as I looked out the window in the morning when the sun was just starting to hit the show at the perfect angle.

The rain here has been decent this year. And Karly Rose got big fast. And then started to loom a little over the hibiscus. The hibiscus was a newcomer to the bed and could not catch up. Karly Rose loomed and loomed, more each day it seemed, and was starting to block out the sun.

So thinking I was coming to the rescue, I moved the hibiscus. Took it out of the pot to free it a little. Gave it a spot of its own. Sun all to itself. Knockout Roses singing backup this time. But far enough away. And my Felco2 pruners can keep those Knockouts under control. I can't control Karly Rose again until spring when I give away big hunks that I dig out of each plant.

Well, I have never believed that old saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." But in this case, that seems to be what's going on. The hibiscus is pouting. Making yellow leaves. I know about sticking my finger in the dirt to check to see if water is really needed, but I am having a hard time controlling the rain.

This hibiscus should be over the move by now. But it is still behaving badly. Does it miss its pot? It is getting sun from the east now and is protected from the west.

I can tend to be like the Red Queen when I garden and if a plant gives me too much aggravation, I just yell, "Off with its head."

But this plant was a gift from a dear friend. I want to save this plant.

And I know that some may be thinking, "Hellooooo, Boomer, you idiot, you are in Ohio trying to grow a hibiscus."

But the Ohio Valley can match Florida with heat and humidity this time of year. So the hibiscus should be thinking it is in Florida. (Maybe I will go out and tell it that this morning. That's dishonest though, even if it is for its own good.)

Is there a hibiscus doctor in the house?

Boomer

[JohnN]

Boomer, you idiot, you are in Ohio trying to grow a hibiscus!!!

LOLOLOLOL.. that's a very clever line.

I'm not a plant expert by any means and will defer to others.
I was just wondering on the timeframe you transplanted your hibiscus, just now in July??
Dead of summer is not a good time for transplanting, too much stress.
I'd guess to just baby your baby as you can, and likely next spring the plant will be OK.

Just how I see it, don't know more than that.

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by JohnN

I'm not a plant expert by any means and will defer to others.
I was just wondering on the timeframe you transplanted your hibiscus, just now in July??
Dead of summer is not a good time for transplanting, too much stress.
I'd guess to just baby your baby as you can, and likely next spring the plant will be OK.

Just how I see it, don't know more than that.

Hi JohnN,

No plant expert you?? Well, you may not think so. But plants can be a little like people. And maybe you are a good student of human nature.

I know you're right about not transplanting in the heat. But I had no choice. Those Karly Rose ornamental grasses were dragging her down. I think my hibiscus thought she was Diana Ross and the ornamental grasses were the Supremes. She had to ditch that backup group. They seemed to be holding her back, blocking out the light. (See, I think my hibiscus is a girl.)

And the rest of that advice you gave, about how I should just baby the plant. There's that student of human nature part. You are right about that, too. Usually, I have no patience with whining plants, but like I said, this one was a gift.

And I had started to baby the hibiscus, finally, just last night. You see, we had a lot of lightning and thunder and a lot of rain, nearly an inch, according to the rain gauge this morning. (But my rain gauge lies sometimes.) And I knew my hibiscus' yellow leaves may have been due to too much water already.

So I got up out of a deep sleep and went outside in the storm, all that lightning everywhere. And I held an umbrella over my little hibiscus until it stopped raining. (OK. That part's not true. I thought I had better say so. Boomer is not totally nuts. Boomer has sense enough to get off a golf course in a storm. Boomer can make a man get a boat off a lake faster than the speed of lightning. But Boomer can rarely type without her tongue in her cheek. So please do not believe that part about the umbrella.)

Well, anyway, JohnN. All of a sudden. Just this morning when I went out there. My hibiscus is looking pretty good. Three blooms. And only a few yellow leaves.

So I told that little hibiscus that if she can give me some more green and get a little bigger that I just might make her into an avatar. And I will copyright that avatar.

And now, I think that girl is feeling pretty fine. She is out there in front of those Knockout Roses and I think that hibiscus might just start struttin' her stuff. I am starting to see some attitude. And those Knockout Roses singing backup this time had better just do what they are supposed to do. It's starting to look a whole lot like Bette Midler and the Harlettes out there.

Well, it's Lunchtime in the Garden of Boomer BeBack so I need to get out of here. I just handed Mr. Boomer a can of sardines for lunch. (It's OK he really likes them and they are good for him.) And I need to hurry back outside. But I just wanted to write this little update. And thanks, JohnN.

Boomer

[swrinfla]

Boomer:

My green-thumbed mother always talked to her plants. Never, ever, "If you don't behave, I'll trim you to the ground," but rather, "Now come on, sweetheart, you should really be the star in my garden!"

Seemed to work, as she grew amazing things!

SWR