Wayne

I am waiting for the summer months but for now my "Rosa sinesis, Baja Breeze" (Tropical hibiscus) is now inside for the winter months. But during the summer, i found that my hibiscus wasn't preforming like the pictures, and the sizes aren't that dramatic, like the pictures. i have good pro-mix and its outside all summer months, and i also occasionaly feed it, what about winter months? and is pruning all that necessary? i want a larger Bush not small..

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Peanut butter jelly!

Tog Tan

The hibiscus being a tropical plt basically need a lots of water but good drainage soil. Ok, I am not from the temperate area... Here, those which are planted outside as landscape plants into the ground do not perform as well as those which are better cared for but in pots. Good fert is important for its growth. The only thing I dislike about them is that they are not woody/rigid and becomes messy with growth. With a good regime of watering and fert they grow to at least 7ft tall here. Age is not the factor.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

lorax

Like Tog Tan, I'm a tropical dweller and Hibiscus for me are boulevard trees. However: I also grow Hibiscus in pots, and have since I was Canadian. I've found that they get big and will eventually develop a woody stem if they're babied. Here are my tricks:
1. Make sure the plant is in a south-facing room that is normally quite warm all on its own. I had a 10' hibiscus tree in my kitchen for quite some time; when I moved I had to leave it there because it wouldn't fit out the door.
2. Once a month, give it a good misting with an insecticidal soap. This is a preventative/curative for spider mites, to which Hibiscus are quite prone.
3. Make sure you've got an unglazed earthenware pot with good drainage holes.
4. Fertilize once a month with liquid fish fertilizer. Or, just bury a few sardines in the pot. The former is less smelly.
5. If it's a young Hibiscus, pinch judiciously to get it to bush out a bit. If it's an older one, try pruning back the lower branches.
6. Water daily. Mist on particulary hot days.

With these care instructions and luck it will get nice and big, and bloom frequently.

Or hang on, are you talking about making the flowers themselves larger? That's a lot harder.

Tog Tan

Sorry, I wasn't being specfic lorax. Yep, the stem is woody but... the branches is pretty messy if unkempt. As they are softish and when they get long, they have a droopy look. That was what I was trying to say. I used to keep 20+ big pots of the big flower hybrid and gave up after trying to keep them in 'shape'. My all time favorite (don't know the name), was a brown colored hybrid I got from Bangkok about 10yrs ago. I have not seen it again since.
Btw the hibiscus is very common here because....it is Malaysia's National Flower.[/b]

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

D_&_T

Going to try to start some seeds from my grandpa's that winters outside here!

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lorax

Yeah, but that's much more likely to be H. syriacus or another cold-hardy species than it is H. rosa-sinensis. Best of luck!