Hibiscus plant - what do I need to do? (flowers, landscaping, growing)
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I have a hibiscus that I bought last year for a container. It bloomed all summer and was beautiful. It is growing back like gangbusters this year (yay!), and I just had the thought yesterday that I wondered if I needed to prune back this spring growth to encourage better growth over the summer, similar to the pruning I did for the mums at my old house.
If I do need to prune, now that it is May, is it too late? Should I have done it last month? The stalks are now about 20-24" high - tons of leaves, no buds yet. Can i prune that back now even though summer is fast approaching? If so, how much should I prune it back?
Even though there are no buds yet whatsoever? Not even a hint of them?
Yep.
I have several which over winter in the ground. Knock off a growing tip (which is where the flowers form) and the buds don't get replaced. That's my experience.
there are tropical hibiscus and hardy hibiscus. OP, you don't say where you live or where you over wintered your plant. I bring my tropical hibiscus indoors and they bloom all winter, but they really take off when it warms up enough to put them back outside.
I prune any dead wood and put the pot in a heavy cache pot so it doesn't tip over. I freshen the soil and root prune every couple of years. Doing that lets me avoid putting them in a bigger pot.
I have a hibiscus that I bought last year for a container. It bloomed all summer and was beautiful. It is growing back like gangbusters this year (yay!), and I just had the thought yesterday that I wondered if I needed to prune back this spring growth to encourage better growth over the summer, similar to the pruning I did for the mums at my old house.
If I do need to prune, now that it is May, is it too late? Should I have done it last month? The stalks are now about 20-24" high - tons of leaves, no buds yet. Can i prune that back now even though summer is fast approaching? If so, how much should I prune it back?
I just pruned/shaped mine back about 3 weeks ago and they are already filling out with new growth, buds should be on it in about 3-4 weeks. I've had the same routine for over 10 years with these hibiscus. I also use Bloom Plus 10-54-10 fertilizer for maximum blooming.
It's a hardy hibiscus, but I live in SC. I did clean out the dead stalks just before winter. Fortunately, my neck of the woods is not known for japanese beetles. Early this spring I did repot them into a larger container (this was just before ANY growth started).
I'll take a look at the link and see if it's worth pruning now. This morning I did not see ANY evidence of buds at all - just leaves and more leaves galore. I'll be picking up the stakes tonight to keep the stalks from breaking once the buds start growing.
Just wanted to update - it's almost a month later and my hibiscus plant is HUGE. At least 3 feet in height at it's highest peak. I did not do any pruning at all. It is more than double the size it was last year. We've had some vicious storms over the last two weeks with torrential downpours and high winds, and my hibiscus has made it through each storm (we had one particularly bad one last week that I thought for sure would destroy it (I was not home at the time to move the plant to safety) - but it survived!
As of last night I counted over 60 buds beginning to form on the one plant! I'm so excited that I didn't kill it.
I've already got another container waiting in the wings so that I can divide the plant once it is done for the year. I'm also tempted to plant one half of it in the ground and see if it takes off next spring. If it does, then I'll keep dividing the container each year and keep replanting along one fenceline that could use a bit of privacy landscaping.
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