Ideas on what I am doing wrong

My hibiscus was planted in partial shade. I moved it to a spot that gets sun most of the day. What can I do to help this poor baby survive!!

They don't enjoy being moved, so they'll often have some leaves turn yellow and fall off when you do that. You also need to watch out for sunburn, when you have something that's used to part shade and you want to move it into the sun, it helps to expose it gradually to more sun until it's worked its way up to the amount of sun you want it to live in, otherwise the leaves can get sunburned. Was the plant in the ground, or was it in a pot and you just moved the pot? If it was in the ground and you moved it to a new spot, summer's not really an ideal time for that because the roots aren't well enough established to take up as much water as the plant really needs, so they'll tend to wilt even if there's enough moisture in the soil. So you have to be extra careful on the watering--make sure you're giving it enough water, but make sure you stick your finger in the soil to see if it really needs it before you give it more rather than just watering whenever you see it wilt.

The thing that really worries me about yours though is the stippled yellow pattern on a lot of the leaves--that is a telltale sign of spider mites. Turn the leaves over and look to see if you can see little teeny reddish brown dots--those are the spider mites (if you don't have good eyes, you might need a magnifier to see them). How I deal with them is to wash off the undersides of all the leaves to dislodge the mites, and repeat this treatment every day for a while, then check periodically after that to make sure you got them all. Misting the plant regularly can help since spider mites don't like a lot of humidity. You can also use insectides if you want, but I've found that washing off the leaves is a good first step even if you plan to use an insecticide after that. I suppose there might be something else that makes leaves look like that, but it really looks like spider mites to me.

Thanks so much. I moved it because the leaves were turning that stippled yellow. Since the plant requires full sun and I had it in partial shade I thought that is what was making it happen. I will check for spider mites. Thanks again for the advice.

Afterthought: Will the spider mites kill the plant?

If you don't take care of them, yes they will. I don't think you've reached that point yet, but I would definitely take care of them ASAP before they do more damage.

I should add--it would be a great idea if you could rig up some shade over the plant to protect it from the sun beating down on it. Spider mites plus transplant shock are probably not a good combination, and if you give it some shade you can at least minimize the transplant shock. I would also not fertilize it for a while until it's not stressed anymore--I don't know if you'd been planning on fertilizing or not, but if you were going to, I'd hold off for a while.

Thanks so much for your help. Will let you know what I find out and how I make out. It is raining here today. Forecast calls for rain and clouds most of the day so nature is providing today's shade!!

You may also want to do the spider mite check on any plants that were near where the hibiscus used to be, and keep a close eye on anything that's near it now. I've never found them on just one plant, they spread very easily and they're not overly picky about which plants they'll munch, so I've found there's usually "Ground Zero", the worst infected plant that started it all, and then most of the things around it will have them too but the damage won't be as noticeable. If there aren't very many of them on a plant, you may not see them on the underside of the leaves and you may not notice the stippling on the leaves yet, but it wouldn't hurt to wash off the undersides of the leaves of anything that's been around the hibiscus. I've found that's the best way to contain them quickly, otherwise if you wait until the other plants are showing symptoms, then they will have spread to even more and you'll be chasing them for the rest of the summer! The rain you're having should help too since they don't really like humidity.

We have been having a LOT of humidity this summer. This week has been particulary bad. I checked under the leaves this morning and I didn't notice anything. I will check again when the rain lets up. I am going to wash the undersides of the leaves for good measure anyway.

If you've been that humid then I'm surprised you'd have spider mites, but I've never seen anything else cause that sort of stippling pattern on the leaves. I've battled them for 2 summers in a row now so I've learned to recognize the signs. They are also very hard to see on the leaves, I've got really good eyes so I'm usually able to spot them, but they are very, very tiny, they look like little tiny dots on the underside of the leaves. So you have to look really close to see them. Or I suppose it's possible that the humidity got rid of them already for you and the damage was from earlier (that stippled pattern is permanent damage to the leaves, so it would stick around even after you get rid of the mites, the way to know you got rid of them for sure is to watch new growth, if it starts to get the pattern too then you know they're still there, but if it looks nice and green then you're OK)

thank you so much for your help. It really helped. I will keep on the lookout for them. I also thought that the yellowing on the leaves was from the shade because the new growth doesn't have it.

Too much shade could cause yellowing, but it wouldn't be in that stippled pattern. If the new growth doesn't get it, that's a good sign that the spider mites are probably gone, but do keep an eye out, they're sneaky little things that like to come back when you least expect it!

update on my hibiscus, It is looking great!! Washing the underside of the leaves did the trick. My new growth is a nice dark green with no stippling. The leaves that were turning yellow has stopped. It seems to be happy in it's new location. I have a few buds that are starting to open.

I guess I need to be more careful and check closer on what I am buying. I bought it at a farmer's market. I guess it's like nursery school, sickness can spread pretty quickly at one of those places and then you get to bring it home!!

Thanks for all your help solving this for me. I couldn't have done it without your help. I was totally clueless!!