Indoor Gardening and Houseplants: Unexpected Hibiscus Bloom!, 1 by jenny_tulip

jenny_tulip wrote:
I was working in my sunroom last night and much to my surprise I found a bright red bloom on my hibiscus tree! What a nice surprise! It's still so cold here in IN. :o( I've had such awful spring fever. Does anyone else grow hibiscus? I've got 3 tropicals......red hibiscus tree, and the other two are just the regular plant type.....peach and pink. I also have 3 hardy hibiscus outside, pink, red, and white.

Last winter I had quite the challenge with my 2 hibiscus. (just got the tree last season) I didn't prune them back when I brought them indoors for the winter. They did real well till about Christmas, then started to go dormant. I finally cut them back in Jan/Feb, and they started growing nicely again. But they didn't bloom all summer. LOL I finally repotted them in Aug/Sept and I got a handful of blooms but that was it. So last fall when I brought them in I pruned them hard. As I did my tree. The tree is ahead of schedule for some reason. I'll have to prune it again so it will bloom for me all summer. My other two hibiscus are starting to leaf out nicely, so I hope they are on a better time schedule this summer versus last. :o)

I've read that hibiscus will bloom indoors year round. Mine don't. The only thing I can come up with is that my sunroom doens't stay quite warm enough for it during the winter months. We have an old farmhouse and we converted an enclosed porch into a sunroom. It's hard to heat in the winter. But it never gets below 50* (on the floor). My orchids like the temp change though, it usually brings them into bloom. ;o)