Just the Facts: HIBISCUS

LANDSCAPE USES

Informal hedges or screens (sheared hedges are difficult to control), foundation plants, solitary show plant, or background for other garden plants; grow well in pots; can grow up to 15-20 feet but most hybrids are smaller; some varieties can grow into a small tree and make a spectacular flowering tree.

FLOWERS

Most flowers last only a day, but a few varieties last 2 or 3 days; up to six inches in size and a little larger in some hybrids; some varieties attracts hummingbirds to flowers; most odorless but a few have slight fragrances; Colors: red, pink, orange, and yellow; lavenders, bluish tones, whites, browns, golds, and almost black (very dark red), grays, and silvers.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

USDA Zones 9-10 for normal autdoor plantings

Light: bright sunlight.

Temperature: 35(60-90)100 degrees; plants killed back to the ground during freezes, but established plants usually grow back from roots in the spring.

Water: should be heavily watered (12 to 18 inches deep) every three days in summer; once a week in winter.

Pruning: Prune to almost any shape or size most any time except in cold weather but best in spring and summer. Flowers bloom only on new growth so plants need to be pruned to encourage branching.

Soil: pH-5.5 to 6.5. Sandy rich in organic matter with mulching. In pots, can use soilless mixture or sand mixed with compost-laced topsoil.

Fertilizer: High nitrogen in spring to jump start plants and high potassium in summer to encourage blooming; water soluble slow-release fertilizer with minor elements works great.

PROPAGATION

Seed, cuttings, air layering, budding, or grafting. Propagation of hybrids is usually done through grafting to good rootstock. Seedlings generally are similar but different from the adult plants. Some hybrids can be induced to re-hybridize and hundreds and thousands of spectacular varieties are the result. Seedlings can live 50 years or more, but hybrids only 5 to 10 years.

DISEASES

Many diseases--aphids, thrips, whiteflies, spider mites, a few bacteria and viruses, pink mealy bug, caterpillars, grasshoppers, snails and slugs, beetles, cutworms, and leaf miners--attack the hibiscus, but a well-maintained, healthy plant seldom has problems that it can't overcome on its own.

ASSOCIATIONS

American Hibiscus Society--"to encourage and promote the development and improvement of hibiscus."

International Hisbiscus Society The IHS differs in that it is an internet association. Instead of monthly meetings at a fixed geographic location, we talk 24 hours per day via the IHS mail list, which is a searchable, photo capable channel of written communication.