Can someone help me save it? This was taken just before Christmas. Now it is almost completely bare.
I'm giving it water. I don't think too much. I mist it occassionally w/ a spray bottle.
I know it needs to be repotted but that must wait until spring.
Any suggestions on what to look for or maybe what I should do differently?
Thanks in advance.
LoraB.
PS. This is Holly's Pride.
A couple possibilities: 1) hibiscus will sometimes lose their leaves due to stress, such as if you move them from one location to another. They have always recovered fine from this for me. This is what it looks most like to me, but if you haven't moved it at all and your environmental conditions haven't changed then it's probably something else. 2) could be overwatering. It's a little hard to tell, but when I tilt my head sideways to look at the picture rightside up, it looks like your leaves might be a little wilted, which combined with the lower ones turning yellow and falling off could mean overwatering or possibly underwatering, but that's much less common. If this is what's happening, your best chance to save it is to repot it now in fresh soil, assuming the roots haven't rotted too badly yet. And 3) could be that it's been in the pot way too long, I don't have any experience on this with hibiscus, but with other plants of mine I've found that if they get too rootbound the leaves will yellow and fall off similar to what's happening here (I think when that happens it's actually underwatering that's happening indirectly because there are so many roots and so little soil that you can't possibly put enough water in to keep the plant happy). Again, repotting is the solution, make sure to untangle the encircling roots before you repot it so they don't just keep going around and around themselves. Is there a particular reason you can't repot until spring? I think that might be the best thing for the plant and I can't think of any reason not to do it now. Unless you think the leaf drop is due to stress from moving it around, then maybe it's better to wait until it's recovered from that.
I have numerous Hibs and the majority are in extremely large pots so i've had to keep them outside for the winter. We dont get severe winters in San Antonio, Texas so they have done ok so far. Alot of the leaf loss and yellow leaves I've found are just part of the change of season. Just before it got really cool here I did repot two just so they would be in large pots when the spring came so Im not sure why you couldnt repot it now. I dont baby my plants expecially if they are pretty large and established. You'd be surprised how tolerant they can be. Hope things work out for u
Sometimes the yellowish in leaves is due to the presence of spider mites. Check the underside of leaves to find it out, although they're very very small.
If there aren't spider mites maybe the plant is wilting (fungi attack). A bleach solution at 10% (9 parts of water, 1 part of bleach) is a good practise with wiltted plants.
Please, give some water to your plant. It seems in totally drought conditions.
I don't think it needs to be repotted. The pot seems to have the right size. Hibiscus in pot prefer to live in small pots.
Regards
Carlos
Thanks all for replying.
I checked the leaves and don't really see anything. Got my hubby to check too and his eyes are better than mine. If something's there, we can't find it.
Since this is a hib that was outside and then I brought in in for the winter, I was just assuming I shouldn't repot it until I was ready to bring it back out. Prob around May. This one has fine roots showing on top of the soil.
Maybe more fertilizer in the water? And in looking back, I think I've been underwatering it. I'll increase it gradually and see if I notice a difference.
Thanks again.
LoraB.
Mine always get yellow like that when I bring them in. I brought a few special ones in a few weeks ago and their leaves immediately turned yellow and started dropping. Put them back out when we got back to the 70's and they quickly looked wonderful again. Two days ago I brought a few back in and I am already seeing yellow. They just hate being moved to an area with a different humidity level I think. Mist. mist and mist some more.
I would not fertilize it until it's doing better.
Most likly it is stressed from coming inside. They do like humidity and warm.
We moved and begin Nov. had a couple trans planted for us. One from next door we we sold oue home and one just from another garden, Both of them lost all their leaves. We think the gardeners just pulled plants up not taking care to bring all the roots. Begin of December they had no leaves but we could see new growth. We did not trim. Now the one has all new full foliage and blooming !
Now our neighbor whom bought our home next door planted a large Hibiscus he had frown inside in pot in Ohio for five years . He trans planted it into the ground and it never lost a leaf been two months just blooming away ! Go figure.
Most likly if your plant is free of pest, and get light, humidity and air circulation all leaves will return !
Water only when it needs it. Mine are in garage asome have 1 leaf. But they don't dry out as fast but wilt and I have ine the past killed mine from overwater. They are doing great (alive still not pretty) but even 4 in pots only need wated every week or so here. I don't move back out till time is ok or close.
I had this problem with my hibiscus when I placed it under the heater vent. Is this a possible? I moved mine away from the vent and it started doing better.
Jeri
Most plants don't like hot dry air blowing right on them, I've had to be careful in my greenhouse and make sure that there aren't any plants directly in front of the heater for that reason.
