Hibiscus: Hi Hibiscus people! May I have some help?, 1 by skiekitty

skiekitty wrote:
Davis - (hmm.. didn't I just see you in Roses? :) ) The dead stalks is from the previous year. This type of "rose mallow" http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/40925/ Hibiscus moscheutos, I was told by the garden center, would die back to the ground 100% and then come back up from nothing, which it did, if it had enough moisture. This part of my yard is 100% soggy all the time. It's downhill from my neighbor, so every time he waters, I get 2" of standing water right here (which is why I put these here.. nothing else seemed to want to grow). In the first picture, you see a stick with some bulby-looking things on it.. that's an aspen branch that has this:

What are those large round lumps on the twigs of my Aspens?
Those lumps are "galls" or swelling of the plant tissue caused by the Aspen Twig Gall Fly after it deposits its eggs into your aspen twig in early spring. The galls are ugly but they do not harm the tree and there really is no effective control. We chalk this one up to L.W.A.A. (Life With An Aspen).

(I hate aspens, they have the shortest lifespan, but I can't afford to get mine taken out right now as it's just too HUGE.. it's about 35' tall.)

WQP - Fertilized this spring with MiracleGro BloomBooster twice (once in May, then again in June). What's around it is just daylillies to the left (you can see them in the pic) and to the right, about 4' away, is a Maltese Cross, then a pink Beebalm, then a Concord Grape Spiderwort, then an Oranges & Lemons rose. The attached picture kinda helps to see the layout a little better as you can see the Spiderwort, then the Beebalm, then the Maltese Cross. To the left of the Maltese Cross in the puddle of water you can see the stem sticking up with the tag in front of it.

Imzadi - You're a lucky person as you're in zone 8. In my zone (zone 5), we have fluxes from 20 degrees one night to upper 60s in the day, then that night it can go down to -15, then stay at 0 degrees for a few days, then zoom back up into the 60s again. Everything has to be mulched here for 2 reasons: cold protection and moisture protection. Winter watering is a mandatory thing here if you want to live. Most of my roses have to be covered in about a foot of mulch (it's actually suggested that for climbers to actually dig them up & pot them indoors over the winter). There was only about a dusting of mulch left after the spring thaw, so they were able to breathe OK.