My back yard garden is full of assorted [and thriving] flowering plants and yet my Hibs always drop leaves prematurely and turn out looking rather sickly. I've seen insects attract to my Mandevilla and an occasional snail on a Hib bloom but never any severe infestation throughout the entire garden. Here's an example of what one looks like when I first transplant into a square pot.
This message was edited Jul 18, 2007 12:05 PM
After a few weeks, some leaves start turning yellow and eventually drop.
Then comes the "Hibiscus Hospital" where the sick ones go to live a decent life but not a thriving one. Any suggestions to what I'm doing wrong?
A lot of times hibiscus will drop a bunch of leaves after they're transplanted (or even sometimes if you just move the pot around too much). But don't worry, they'll come back as long as you do all the other stuff right (watering, etc)
Thanks so much for the advice e3! I do keep my hibs lovingly watered and fertilized although I will have to stop fondling them so much. I found my first seed pod on a Platycodon last week and I find myself checking out all my other plants too almost every day - tilting the pots, looking under the foliage, et al. They might even be getting sick of all the attention lol.
Also, do you have any advice for snails/slugs control? Malestrom advised on ppocket's (Hib forum) thread yesterday that it looked like snail damage which rang the proverbial bell with me as I've seen a few slugs and snails on mine too.
I would just get some copper tape or foil (should be able to find this at a home center/hardware store) and make a ring around the edge of the soil in the pot, they won't crawl over it. Or you can buy products that are granules of iron phosphate, that's another nontoxic control (nontoxic to everyone but the snails of course!). I wouldn't recommend any of the slug/snail products with metaldehyde as the active, that is very toxic to pets so the copper or the iron phosphate is a much better choice.
OMG! Don't take this the wrong way - I LUV you! Thank you so much for this.
I've been a novice gardner for the past few years and something has just come over me this season. I'm even setting a goal of getting a commercial nursery going one day in the next two years. I'm thinking my grandfather that died when I was very young instilled this in me (he had a commercial nursery/farm and I remember helping him plant roses) and it's finally surfacing.
Thanks again for the knowledge. J.
Same thing happened to me a couple years ago, I had always helped my parents with their garden when I was a kid, but in my adult life I hadn't had much interest in gardening for a number of years, then when I moved out here I think it was all the exciting new plants that I could have never dreamed of growing in Ohio just got me really excited, and before I knew it I was addicted! Have you read Tony Avent's book called something like "So You Want to Start a Nursery"? It's supposed to be a really good book if you're thinking of trying something like that.
Great word e3. I truly am addicted.
Haven't read much lit on starting a nursery except for developing a business plan to fund and get capital lined up. Will definately add it to my list.
Thanks always! J.
You should check out the market growers forum too, you can probably get some good advice on starting up a business there.
