Molten Lava Question

Now that this plant is all healthy, it's growing and budding by leaps and bounds. Since it's more "orange-y" than I thought it would be, I'd like to move it to a different place in my garden. I'm almost afraid to though, since it's doing so well. The blooms are just beautiful and I'd like to move them to a more showy location in the yard (with the same ratio of sun/shade).

For all of you "experienced" (i.e., not me) tropical hibiscus lovers, how do they handle being dug up and moved? It's still 70-80 degree weather here in San Bernardino and I'm wondering if I should move it now, before it gets colder? Molten Lava is so pretty that I definitely don't want to anything that will remotely damage the plant, but I'd like to put in a different color hibiscus where I planted this one.

Well first of all, I'm just sickened by the fact that you have the option of moving it to another location this time of year. My ONLY option for all of my tropicals is into a pot and indoors for the entire winter. Can you really leave your tropical hibiscus outdoors all year around? I'm so envious!
This maybe the best time to transplant it IMO. I'd say to wait if the temps were any hotter. I guess before I advise you further, I need to know what your hibiscus behave like over winter in your zone. ie. If they loose all their leaves and go dormant, I wouldn't move it as I wouldn't think it would have time to get established enough to survive winter. But if they stay green over winter and the root system will have warm enough temps to grow, go ahead and relocate it.
Here is a pic of one of my Molten Lava's, this will probably be it's last for the season sadly.
I just can't get over the fact that you have the option of leaving tropicals in the ground all year! We're running around like chickens with or heads cut off trying to get all of our various tropicals potted up and inside before the cool temps take a toll on them. Your so lucky;)
JD

Well, I haven't tried overwintering any yet, because I started purchasing the hibiscus' in the spring and my yard was only put in last year at this time. My mom, however, has had her hibiscus' in the ground for years throughout the winter and they do just fine with no protection at all. It's a tad cooler some days at my house than hers, so I'm going to make little teepee's out of bamboo then put heavy plastic sheeting or a light-weight blanket over the top when it gets cold enough for me to worry. My brug was planted at the beginning last October, and besides wind damage (grrrrr!), it did just fine and never did even stop blooming. It's a much stronger tree this year and will hopefully have a little less damage when the late fall winds hit us. Mom's plumerias did fine throughout the winter, and her brug was the same as mine, healthy and blooming throughout the season. I have a rose I want to move too, but for that one, I'm going to wait until it's consistently cool here.

Your molten lava is super pretty, and looks a lot different than mine! I really like the color varigation on yours, and hope that's what I can look forward to with mine as it gets older.

I just can't get over how that doesn't look anything like the pic at Exotic Hibiscus, which is what I totally fell in love with. My liner didn't make it, so I bought another, bigger plant, but it hasn't bloomed yet.

JLD's looks very much like Sun Showers or Golden Halos I have.

I'll post Kurt's pic (exotichibiscus.com) of Molten Lava to show the difference. It's also listed as a miniature bloom, and yours doesn't look mini as far as I can tell. I wonder if you got the wrong plant?

You think maybe I should send him a picture? I did get this one (and gator pride, which I love, and am sure is marked correctly) from Exotic Hibiscus. See, the pic from the website is what I thought it would look like too, which is why I planted it where I did. I thought it would be more yellow at the edges, and far more burgandy than orange. Have you guys dealt with him before? Do you think I should send a pic and ask about it? The roots on it were broken and it wasn't packaged well at all, and at first, I didn't think it would live. Right after I placed the order, I got an auto-acknowledge email but then didn't hear anything more for two weeks. Then, I emailed twice and finally looked up the phone number and left a moderately ornry voice mail. He called back the next day and apologized saying they lost my order but that he would send the plants right out, which he did.

The blooms are fairly large and don't seem mini to me either, but I'm just a novice compared to you all. The bush itself has grown a ton since I planted it, and there are literally bunches of buds. It IS beautiful, but I'm wondering if you're right and it was mislabeled. I definitely want to keep it, I just don't think it looks as great as it could where I planted it. Where I have it planted now is near an extremely prolific Black Magic rose, a bird of paradise, burgandy daylilies and in front just to the side of a lady in red hydrangea. I was thinking, look at the website pic, that it would really highlight the burgandy of the rose and daylilies while also highlighting the yellow (some bright green) throats of the daylilies. Also close is a Southern Magnolia tree. The place I want to move it to is next to a triple-trunk Roebellini palm and in the bed above it, are the hibiscus brown sugar (brown & orange) and palm springs (bright yellow w/pink/orange in the middle). They are separated by varigated alpina gingers and just above that bed is my bright yellow brug.

Here's a pic of the brug that also shows the ginger, but the other hibiscus' aren't visible, they are to the left of the ginger. The bed I want to put it in is next to the walkway leading up that that level with the ginger, so it's several feet down and currently only houses the roebellini, but there's room for lots more.

I'd love to hear some more experienced opinions. What do you think?

What do you guys think?

This is where I'm thinking of moving it, not a great picture, but you can get an idea. The bed on the right side of that walk way - the green fronds to the far right belong to the Roebellini.