hi,
i have been lurking on this forum since i purchased my first hibiscus a few weeks ago. anyway, i potted it up and it has grown and flowered well. the problem i am having is that the flowers appear to be much smalled than when i purchased the plant. do you guys have any idea as to why this would happen and how to get them back to the larger size? one of the reasons we picked this plant was because of the large flowers. when i potted it up, i put in Miracle grow slow release fertilizer. i read on this forum that they do not like to be overwatered, so i have really tried to refrain from that. any help or other info would be greatly appreciated. thanks,
tracie
Newbie w/ Hibiscus, please help!
that is weird, for some reason it wouldnt let me post a pic on the first post. anyway, here is the plant right after i purchased and repotted it.
here is a pic taken today. the plant gets full sun.
The first thing I'm thinking is that, a lot of times, these hibiscus get stressed out when they're moved around and repotted. It could simply be that between the travels it's taken (from the wholesaler, to the retailer you bought it from to your house), and the repotting, it's lost some energy and needs some time to recover.
Perhaps others have more advise.
Good luck!
Barb
thanks for the suggestion. any idea how to perk it up, or give it more energy? i know my brugs dont do as well with the slow release fertilizer, for some reason. maybe the hibiscus are the same?
tracie
You've been giving it Miracle Grow, so as far as my experience goes, all it needs is time to recover. You don't want to push it too hard. It's healthy, so sould bounce back soon.
Barb
It looks like a beautiful and healthy plant but I suspect it was grown in a greenhouse with a perfect, cosy environment. Like Barbie said, it has been traveling and it is also having to learn to live outdoors. Give it a bit of time, at least until the nightime temps are consistantly above 60 degrees, and you will see those huge flowers again.
thanks guys! i just wanted to make sure i wasnt doing anything wrong, or if there was something i could do to help it out. i know the plants that come from the nursery can kinda freak when put out in a real garden! lol i always fall for those beautiful pots of zinnias, after i plant them, they never do well.
tracie
LOL, been there and done that.....
By the way, welcome to the Hibiscus forum; some us think it should be called the Hibiscus Addicts forum. Be forewarned...........;-))))))
Ardesia, I don't know WHAT you are talking about with the Hibiscus Addicts Forum, lmao!! I, ahem, would surely not be guilty of that, hahahaha ;-)
Welcome to hibiscus world Aggie :-)
karen
Aggiegirl, please look at the Miracle grow time release formula. It should have NPK listed in three numbers like 15-30-15, to quote the most popular miracle grow formula . UNfortunately these plants hate big middle numbers, which is to say, high phosphorus. The closest Miracle Grow formula I've seen that is okay for hibiscus is their product for Tomatoes in a red box. Phosphorus will be the lowest number. IF the time release stuff you used is high in phosphorus, you will need to repot and discard that soil as best you can.
The easy way to feed these plants if you have only a few is to buy "hibiscus food" at some big nursery in your area, and apply it according to directions. And starting real soon I'd recommend daily watering for all exotic hibiscus grown in containers. Most will thrive with lots of water if the pot drains well.
luck to you
Barry
i didnt know that hibs didnt like the high middle number when i potted it up! :( i am sure it is the kind they dont like. so, repot it, huh! sounds like fun! lol i think i will try that, thanks for the info and warm welcomes!
tracie
ok, i took a look at the slow release fertilizer that i used. i is 10-10-10, is that ok for hibiscus? i looked for some special hibiscus fertilizer and couldnt find any. do you guys have any recommendations? thanks
tracie
Hi Aggiegrl,
I use 20-10-20 peatlite special for my basic drips and add in other elements. The peatlite special has all of the micronutrients for what you are needing. Drawback is I buy 200lbs per month and it comes in 25lb bags. I know there are others on this forum that will not agree with me but General Purpose Miracle Grow is 24-8-16 with micronutrients and should do fine. This is what many many of my customers use and have excellent results feeding 1 tablespoon per gallon 1 time per week. Many of these have used tomato plant food (18-18-21) have had reduction in blooms because of the higher phosphate level. This is just feedback from customers that have either purchased fertilizer from me or tried to accelerate blooming without using bloom booster. As you well know about opinions ;-) (LOL) and this is just my own opinion with feedback from about 300 or so customers that I interact with. Hope this helps.
Robert
i am still confused. excuse my ignorance. but, are you saying that the phosphorus needs to be substantially lower than the other numbers? do you think i still should uproot and repot this plant?
tracie
Also, the slow release you have is a good number. You may need to add some magnesium or iron to get the lush green bush (epsom salt with water) ONLY 1 time a month. Many people I know as well as myself have gone away from time release. Some of these are released too quickly and may overfertilize. This can burn the roots and sometimes kill the plant. (Time Release)Be sure to only put it on the outer edge of the soil and try not get it on the wood (base) of the plant. If you have a hectic schedule than time release may be for you. It sometimes gets difficult to keep the fertilizing schedule when you have to mix and pour.
Robert
Hey, Aggie Girl.
In my opinion 10-10-10 is okay to use until you use it up. In a pinch I have used the Miracle Gro for tomatoes formula without loss of bloom, but it does make foliage more coarse because of its nitrogen sources.
Robert's suggestion for Miracle Grow 24-8-16 is one I'd agree with.
We mostly use the same Peat Lite Special 20-10-20 that he uses, but this product is primarily a wholesale marketed item.
Also, there is a Space City Hibiscus food, for which formulation I was one of the several consultants when it originated at the Space City Hibiscus Society in Pasadena, TX. It is fairly widely available in South Texas and beyond and one of your local nurseries may stock it. IF not, I'm sure you can buy it online, and it is packaged for low-cost retail sale.
We breed new hibiscus and sell rights to vendors like Robert, many thousands of pots of seedlings at any given time, and we rely upon the Peat Lite Special product or the Space City Hibiscus food with an even more ideal formula for hibiscus.
luck to you,
Barry
Here is a site that can help. It has lots of care information. Let me know if you have any more questions and feel free to call if you need to.
Robert
http://www.atouchofthetropics.net/hibiscus_care_information.shtml
Hi Barry,
I agree completely and space city fertilizer is an excellent alternative!
Tracie asked
i am still confused. excuse my ignorance. but, are you saying that the phosphorus needs to be substantially lower than the other numbers? do you think i still should uproot and repot this plant?
IN MY OPINION based on decades of hibiscus growth and breeding . . No, you need not repot unless you put buckets of the triple ten time release product in the pot. IF you follwed directions for quantity to use, just relax and enjoy your hibiscus, and when the time release product expires, switch to one of the products we recommended above.
IF you do acquire Space City or MGro 24-8-16, make your plant even happier by applying either of those weekly to supplement the 10-10-10, thereby reducing in effect the % of phosphorus in your soil. Be sure and wet the foliage with these kinds of soluble products, because they are designed to enter through leaves as well as roots.
As for time release products, contrary to Robert's preference, we continue to use an 8-month Osmocote time release fertilizer 18-7-10 in every hibiscus pot IN ADDITION TO a weekly application of the soluble products like Peters or Space City. Doing so according to label instructions and following Robert's advice about keeping time release fertilizers away from stems (we use a dibble to make a hole for the Osmocote) is extremely useful for busy people, but it does require that you water regularly and never let the plant dry to the point of wilt. Robert I think injects the soluble products he recommended . . with a siphon device that puts fertilizer into EVERY watering. This is great for a pro grower like Robert, not reasonable for most consumers. BTW, I also sell marketing rights to a huge grower selling several hundred thousand hibiscus per year, and they use Osmocote in the pots also, just blending it into the soil mix before potting.
We also apply epsom salt as Robert advised, monthly or thereabouts.
Sorry to assault you with more info than you need, Tracie.
luck to you,
Barry
Thank you, thank you for all the info. i am starting to feel a "need" for more hibs! lol i am worried, though, because i do not have a greenhouse or an enclosed garage to overwinter them. i lost a few brugs in pots that i put in the garage, i guess due to the cold. pizonne, i say a post in the texas forum of a gorgeous hib and i think the lady said she got it from someone at a trade days. i am wondering if it was you.
tracie
Tracie, if Robert doesn't have time to answer tonight, I'll stand in for him and say he is rather a famous exotic hibiscus vendor at Trade Days, and probably the only one.
Barry
Tracie, Lufkin is definitely NOT a tropical community . .
;-)
but there are ways to get these guys thru a winter there. The American Hibiscus Society site can help . . as can the book I wrote for them, which they sell on their site, the Tropical Hibiscus Handbook. Also, this site
http://www.lonestarahs.org/jmla/
currently features an article on winter protection. I wrote their newsletter for twenty years and just wrote the culture section for April because friend and "new" editor Pat Merritt is preoccupied with illness in the family. It is the biggest and strongest hibiscus chapter in the USA, and the October issue of the newsletter will have tons of winter protection poop. It is an 8-page newsletter for 9 months a year and we have subscribers from all over the world because it is probably the best hibiscus newsletter one can find. I guess I'm suggesting that you may want to subscribe by joining the Lone Star chapter via the site above.
OR just post a plea in this forum in the fall and hopefully some of us will have time to advise you. And by all means, buy more hibiscus!
;-)
Barry
Tracie,
This would be us at trade days. We have made many new friends and customers there. People have driven as far as 200 miles to pick up their orders and end up leaving with more. Kind of an addiction (like I have) LOL Over the 3 days we usually bring between to 250 to 300 plants and more than 30 different cultivars with us. This month we will have beautiful variegated bougainvillea. We are there each month and love the break from the rat race at the greenhouse. Did you get to the care link I gave you. It has a wealth of information. Thanks for the help barry.
Robert
Barry, who is that lovely lavender beauty you pictured above???
tracie, you have two of the finest hibiscus minds here giving you (and the rest of us) excellent advice. I'm going to look for some of that Space City stuff right now.......
OK, all I could find online about Space City is that it is sold through yardgeek.com but their site is "under construction". Anyone know of another source?
This message was edited Apr 10, 2008 3:45 AM
Ardesia, call them (southwest Fertilizer) at 713-666-1744 and ask for Mike James, the manager. Tell him that Barry is pushing Space City Hibiscus Fertilizer on a huge web site and he needs to ship you as many as you want AND be prepared for more orders. IF he is not cooperative, please let me know. MIke is a good guy and if he can't get the stuff right now I'll find another source for you, I promise.
I thought I put the name on the image: Lavenderific, I calls it. Atlantis x Goin' Steady (two doubles gave that big single.) It is released for show and sale but not being grown by a vendor at this point . . lost in the shuffle? We gots lotsa lavenders . .
And we cant get too excited about pale ones with guys like this still uncommitted to vendors: Gothic Romance
Barry
Oooooooooooh, that is a pretty one too; I like the shape of the bloom.
Thanks for the tip on the fertilizer too, I'll call Mike in the morning and give him fair warning.
well, i cant tell you how much it means to me to have folks take their time to share their wealth of knowledge with a lowly newbie! lol what i really want/NEED, is a greenhouse. that is going to be my next big project. thanks again, guys, for all the great advice and information.
tracie
Aggie, no one here is "lowly" :-)
Barry, Gothic Romance is just stunning!!!
Stunning hibiscus photos! Thanks for sharing all the good tips, too! What fun to learn about these!
I'm assuming these are all what I know as 'tropical' hibiscus and not hardy in my zone 6a (so I haven't tried 'tropical' hibiscus).
But I do grow 2 Fleming Bros. hibiscus which are hybridized in the midwest and hardy in our zone--
So my question is--does the low 'P' number in the NPK forumula hold for these Fleming hibiscus, too?
(Has anyone thought about organizing a FAQ sticky for this forum? You all would make a great resource!)
Thanks again. t.
I got in touch with Southwest fertilizer about the Space City Hibiscus Fertilizer. I spoke with a nice young gentleman named Daniel as Mike was not available. The 3lb. container is $9.99 plus shipping. I told them others might be calling; they are aware that yardgeek's website is down. The number there is 713 666-1744 if anyone else in interested.
thank you so much for the info.
tracie
Can anyone recommend a pink and yellow combo variety that gets tall?
I want to put several along a fenceline. I already have Seminole, Painted Lady, snow queen, common red, and something with pink and ruby throat, and peach with a ruby throat. My 2 other more "exotic" ones are only pot size, and I really need a tall blooming variety to be a back-drop for smaller plants. Most that I look at are very small and/or slow growers. I need height.
My Tarantella is in a pot and I keep it at about 30" but it is a vigorous plant and I suspect it would like to grow taller. It is also a prolific bloomer.
Don't know if you're looking for a lighter or a brighter pink, but Palm Springs (http://www.hiddenvalleynaturearts.com/acatalog/palmspringsinfo.html) is a good variety. HVH lists it as a red center, but mine has always been a real bright pink. It's a super hardy grower that is planted in ground at my ex-husband's house (but I still get visitation/photographic rites, lol). Has no problem surviving our winters and is a little over 5' now. I bought it as a 6" from HVH when it first came out, so it's been there probably 2-1/2 years.
For a lighter pink, I can't think of anything other than Tarantella, which Ardesia posted above :-)
Another tall one for me is Pele's Fountain, I'll post a pic of that below.
Simple Pleasures is another terrific yellow/pink from HVH (http://www.hiddenvalleynaturearts.com/acatalog/simplepleasuresinfo.html). It is a strong bush and very prolific bloomer, but I'm not sure about how tall it gets. Mine is a little less than 3' for now, but it's growing very well.
And here's a pic of my Pele's Fountain - the picture is almost a year old, I think. The plant is now just shy of 5'.
Edited to say that I purchased it as a 4" from David Franzman (no longer in the hibiscus business, and definitely missed) probably around 3 years ago.
Good luck :-)
karen
This message was edited Jul 6, 2008 3:38 PM
Thank you SO much for the information! I've carelessly made the mistake of ordering them from catalogs, not knowing they only would get a foot and a half high. I'm use to the ones that grow all over Florida that you have to chop back all the time, or they'll consume you! Lesson learned!
The pictures are beautiful! Tarantella and Simple Pleasures are exactly what I was looking for!
:)
Thanks everyone!
My Simple Pleasures is about 5' tall. I just trimmed it back. Tarantella is about 4-1/2' tall.
cat4gp.....I just looked that one up...what a beauty!