How to make hibiscus bloosom

Hi,

This is my second year growing hibiscus. I live in Bay area so weather is pretty good throughout the year. I have only cemented yard so only choice is to keep hibiscus in pots. I have 5 different hibiscus plants (different color) . 2 plants are in 16 inches pot and rest are in 11 inches pot. Last year, I pretty much applied Miracle gro every 2 weeks. Last weekend i went to lowes and I was advised to use "Sta-green" All purpose plant food instead of Miracle gro because Miracle gro has more nitrogen and less other nutrients so it will help the plant to grow faster but weaker. So i bought the sta-green. I understand I can only apply a spoonful every 3 months or so. My question is: In addition to sta-green, can I put any other fertilizer or plant food for hibiscus to bloosom ? At the moment, except for 1 hibiscus plant , rest are not giving out flowers that much.
So what can I do this year to get them all bloosom ?

Thanks,
Sunray

Larger pots.

Fertilizer has 3 numbers.
The first is Nitrogen. Mostly feeds leaves. This is important, plant needs N to grow good leaves to supply the energy to bloom. Start by feeding a slow release N so the plants can get a good start in the spring. N would be the highest of the three numbers.

The second is Phosphorus. Mostly feeds stems, roots and flowers. When you have fed the leaves for a month or two, switch to a fert that is higher in P than N.

The third is Potassium. Plants need K (yes, K is the symbol for Potassium) for water balance. I would make sure the K is about 1/2 to 2/3 of the N.

Example:
Late Winter and Spring:
10-5-5, with trace minerals.
Late Spring:
0-10-10. It is OK if the first number is a bit higher than 0, just that it should be lower than the others when you are trying to encourage flowers.

Slow release fertilizers might be something like Osmocote Plus, it is pelleted with a coating that allows a little fertilizer to seep out each time it is watered. Feed this once, about February (Milpitas is very mild in the winter, but just in case there is frost in Dec or Jan. skip feeding then)
Then about mid to end of April use the 0-10-10 or similar.

"Organic" alternatives:
Blood Meal or Fish Emulsion as a high nitrogen fert.
Cottonseed, or Bonemeal as higher P fert.
Greensand as high K fert.
These would be really good blended into new soil when you transplant them into larger pots.

I think you should lay off the feed for now, the feeding regime you are using right now is way too much, these plants do need a food BUT only do this when you see signs of new growth starting, and use a slow release typ, read the dosage on the packet / container as the companies who make the feeds have obviously done loads of tests to satisfy the health / safety of there products, by adding extra feeds can cause more harm than good, often over feed gives you way too much greenery at the cost of flowers as the plants can only cope with X amount at a time.
Too much feed i can also cause the plants to die because the extra feeding can burn the roots OR the roots close down there up-take of water and nutrients due to overdose, it's like us humans eating 2 Christmas dinners and expecting to carry on eating later in the day for the want of an easier description of over feeding. Your plants are the same with regards of too much feed/ water etc.

I would go get bag-s of nice new compost, larger pots and a box of Blood-fish- Bonemeal mixture (buy from garden store ready mixed, add the directed amount to the pot soil and make sure you have plenty drainage at the bottom of each pot, then refill the pot and when adding the plant only bury the plant to the same depth as it was in the previous pot, too deep can cause the stems to rot. water well after potting up and place in a nice bright area that cets good light and part sun till the plants settle down, you should NOT need to feed the plants again till late summer IF REQUIRED, they should have used up a lot of energy through flowering most of the summer.

Remember it can take some plants a couple of years to get settled into their new environment and also it depends on the age of the plants that you purchases, IF too young, they need a year or so to make plenty root growth and greenery well before flowers. I would also sit the pots on little pot rests / feet or bricks etc to allow air to circulate, keep creepy crawly bugs out the pot / soil and lets drainage flow easier, BUT that's my personal way of doing larger pots.

Pot these individually into their own pots as these plants do have a large root spread /growth once establishes.

Hope this helps you out a little and things improve for you, it's always an instinct to be too kind to our plants and kill them with too much kindness LOL.
Best Regards.
WeeNel.

great advise Diana. Something precisely that I was expecting out of my question.
Other than Miracle gro, I was not aware of anything or rather was confused when I go to Lowes/Home depot. lowe's person advised about sta-green (as she did not like miracle gro for the reason it has more N) but only one of my hibiscus (which is in a 17 inch pot) has more greens. First i need to change rest to a larger pot and then put fertilizer based on your advise. Hoping to see lot of flowers this year around.