Anyone Grown Hardy Hibiscus Before?

dogstarheaven

i planted out a so-called winter hardy 'red alert' a couple of weeks ago at the sheltered SE-facing corner of the lotti. i haven't been too sure about it as originally the plant was only £2 for a 3ft pot and it had mostly finished flowering by then. the leaves went yellow and dropped off over the weeks and now it just looks rather dead. i've researched that it could look like this for a long time before it springs into life in May time. but can anyone advise whether the plant look this poorly so soon after i planted it out. it's been watered since it went in, so i haven't neglected it..

thanks in advance.

sirbrainy

Yes I've got about 80 of them from various ages 1 year - 30 years old.

Sounds exactly right.

Some of my older ones are entirely without leaf, some of the older ones are soon to be without leaf, most of the younger ones are in leaf but won't last much longer.

April-May sounds about right for new leaves, don't give up on it as slow to start :cool:

And remember - not too many things are going strong with the beautiful flowers all the way through August.

sirbrainy

PS they are fully hardy down to -25C and beyond.

Mayflower10cat

Gorgeous, aren't they! I have one I bought from a newspaper special offer many years ago - it has three colours grafted onto the one trunk. They come into leaf very late as Sirbrainy says; each year I still worry about mine being bare right up to May. And I only quite recently read that for best flowers, prune in late spring as they flower on new growth, I do mine in about April.

dogstarheaven

thanks to both your replies sirbrainy & Mayflower10cat for your assurances that the plant will be ok like this. i didn't realise that they're hardy as -25. how far down do you need to prune next Spring - to the last two buds? do they ever keep well as a cut flower, i wonder? and also, will it be possible to propagate from this with the prunings?

sirbrainy

dogstarheaven wrote: »

thanks to both your replies sirbrainy & Mayflower10cat for your assurances that the plant will be ok like this. i didn't realise that they're hardy as -25. how far down do you need to prune next Spring - to the last two buds? do they ever keep well as a cut flower, i wonder? and also, will it be possible to propagate from this with the prunings?

No good as a cut flower.

Pruning - a matter of choice. Some people prune them like Buddleias ie very hard prune and they grow back strongly.

I prefer to keep them high as a screen and either

- prune off the dead heads and a little bit of branch end of summer

- or give a light trim at Easter.

Decided to leave the dead heads on this winter to get some seeds.

Propagation - you can use prunings but wait until plant is in leaf. Never had much success.

pinkcandyflossprincess

i still have a twig i bought from b&M, it never grew but one day it might:(:o

Jnelhams

Next year, once the leaves have reached maturity and started to go dark green, you can cut a length of dark green stem around 8-12 inches, strip the lower leaves and leave in a vase of water for several weeks.... eventually you'll get white nodules form, put up and keep damp, plant out in late autumn.

dogstarheaven

thanks for your help Jnelhams I shall try that next year.