One of my favourite houseplants is the hibiscus; it is a large plant – a shrub actually – and in its natural tropical environment the hibiscus can reach heights of several metres. We saw lots of beautiful hibiscus in Maui last winter while on a holiday there and it is the state flower of Hawaii. When grown as a houseplant a hibiscus rarely gets more than about a metre and a half tall, but its long side branches give the plant a fairly wide girth, so this plant is only suitable for those who have enough space to accommodate it.
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I had not had a hibiscus in my houseplant collection for a number of years until a year ago last fall when my next door neighbour offered me a hibiscus plant that her daughter had given her for Easter. She had had the plant outdoors on her back step for the summer where it had bloomed profusely but she did not want to take it into the house for the winter. The hibiscus spent last winter in my sunroom and it bloomed on and off all winter, producing lovely bright-gold blooms with dark-red centres.
This spring I hardened the plant off outside on the patio for a week or so and then took it over to my neighbour so she again could enjoy it on her back step. Except for an initial transition period when it didn’t bloom, the plant flowered all summer – one day she told me that she had counted 14 blooms open at the same time.
This plant is bushy, about 80 cm tall and very thickly branched. I believe the plant was treated with growth retardants while being grown in a greenhouse and so the plant has stayed quite compact and bushy. I have it back in my sunroom again this winter where it is continuing to bloom. Many commercial plants are treated with chemicals to make them compact and bushy, but over time the effects of the chemical wear off and I think I can see this beginning to happen with this plant as the newer branches are getting taller; the plant is getting larger.
Having been quite impressed with how this plant had performed last summer after it had been wintered over I was determined this spring to include a hibiscus in my outdoor landscape. I therefore decided to succumb to my fondness for hibiscus as well as to my attraction to plants grown as standards and I bought a hibiscus standard.
The plant was about a metre and a half tall when I bought it, with a bare trunk and a ball of foliage on top – and it was in full bloom. I chose a bright-red variety to co-ordinate with the colour scheme of my back patio garden. After the initial adjustment period during which the existing blooms finished blooming and the plant went through the process of setting new buds, my hibiscus standard bloomed all summer and was still in bloom when danger of frost forced me to take the plant into the sunroom for the winter.
I am, therefore, lucky to have two hibiscus plants blooming in the sunroom this winter. They are both in front of the south window where they get direct sunlight. To keep them blooming and healthy I fertilize them quite heavily, even in winter when most plants don’t require any fertilizer. The plants keep putting out new growth and flower buds so they require plenty of nutrients. I also find that they require a lot of water and even though both of my hibiscuses are in quite large pots, the soil dries out fairly quickly.
Hibiscus can be bothered by spider mites so I am very cautious when I bring the plants inside in the fall; I clean the foliage thoroughly and spray it with an insecticide that is recommended for spider mites, and I repeat this treatment on a weekly basis for a few weeks. I do not have other plants in the sunroom that are bothered by spider mites, so due to that plus my taking precautions in the fall, I have avoided any infestations. With luck, next spring my neighbour again will have her hibiscus on her back step where she – and I – can enjoy it, and I will have my hibiscus standard blooming on my back patio. In the meantime, all winter I can enjoy beautiful hibiscus blooms from both plants right in my own sunroom.
– Albert Parsons writes from Minnedosa, Manitoba
