Hibiscus: Wintering over hibiscus in the far north, 4 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Hi, Everyone!

I bought a beautiful, Tropical Hibiscus at my Home Depot last spring. I work there.
It is my 1st Tropical Hibiscus I have ever had. The blooms were amazing!
Just FYI--I am a seasoned, informed gardener. But--when I have a new plant--
I seek out information so I do the right thing. Want to learn from others if not.

I decided to check out this Forum as I just brought my pot of tropical Hibiscus outside
which has spent the winter in my cool, dark (most of the time) Shop.
It was strong enough to keep a lot of leaves on it all during this time. I did not
water it a whole lot--but a bit if it looked wilted.

This Hibiscus is one with the puckered, thick, deep green and glossy leaves.
I will attach a picture.

So--today I was outside all day working in the garden and decided to prune back
the old stems of the Hibiscus. Looking at the stem sections I was cutting off, I decided
to trim them up and see if I could root them. I had 8 cuttings,

I, successfully, rooted 17 fig cuttings (also woody) from last fall, and they are all
leafed out. Hibiscus is woody as well--so--I thought I would do all the same things.

Took about 4"-5" tip cuttings, trimmed all but the top 2 leaves on each (trimmed those too)
"wounded" the bottoms of the stems to expose the cambium in a couple places,
dipped them in Rooting Hormone and stuck them all in a 7" square pot filled with Pro Mix.
I will keep this pot on my warm light set-up as I did the Figs. No plastic tenting.

Any comments so far? I will listen to you all.....Never too much advice from other gardeners.

My ONLY concern is that the mother plant was not in the active, healthy, growing cycle.
It has been in a semi-dormant condition. I am wondering if this may affect the rooting
of the cuttings???? One could say--"The juices were not flowing".....but it was alive
and had leaves on it. Where the pruning-cuts were made--it was all green.

It did have white fly problems right after I brought it home. This may have come from the "source" of the Hibiscus...eg--Florida...days on the trucks....etc. It took me a long time to get these under control. Lots of spraying with various things....some home-made--
some seriously Pro.

This is my Hibiscus from last summer. Does this one have a name? ???
I just loved it! Hope it thrives for me this summer....without bugs on it.

Pic. #4 is as it looks right now--just cut back.

Should i cut the stems lower?
Should I give it a systemic drench at this time? Won't hurt to my thinking...
I could also spray down all the stems with Neem Oil.
What do you think?

Thanks! I am all ears! Gita.