Hibiscus indoors

I have 2 hibiscus I am growing in pots because Tulsa winters are to cold for them to survive outside. One of the is flourishing, green and still blooming. The other one's leaves have turned VERY yellow and looks like it’s close to death. Anyone know why one is doing so well and the other one suddenly looks terrible? They were both fine outside all summer.

Please take some pictures and post on the plant ID discussion. Sounds like you have "critters" of some kind. There are resident experts than can help you. :)

Hibiscus are a little temperamental about having their conditions changed suddenly, and they will often respond by the leaves turning yellow and dropping off. I think that's most likely what's going on (assuming you're not doing something else like overwatering, they always recover from this just fine). Do be careful on the watering though too--they don't like to be too dry but I've also found it's very easy to overwater them, they seem a bit pickier than some of my other plants on this.

The best thing to do is slip the plant from the pot, have a look at the roots and see if you can see anything eating or are the roots suffering from too much water, the plants you have really don't take too kindly to being in a hot dry atmosphere and as Ecrane has said, sometimes just the change of indoors movement can send a plant into shock, they will require to be kept on the dryer side indoors and will prob need a bit of winter rest, also you will have change the light available to the plants as artificial lighting can also be tricky to get right for a plant that has flourished most of the year outside. good luck. WeeNel.

If after checking all of the above suggestions you don't find that you have an obvious problem, you may want to put your hibiscus in a room that is kept very cool through the winter (they seem to prefer this). They can take pretty cool temps. (45 degrees or so) without any damage. Let the soil get dry in the top 2" before watering again. You will lose most of the leaves this way, but the plant needs a rest in order to put on a good show next spring. Even a poorly lit, cool basement beats overwintering in a heated part of the house. Lastly, a lot of people cut the plant back before bringing it inside for the winter to keep it a manageable size. If you can accomodate the plant without doing this, that's MUCH better. Pruning will send the plant into active growth at the worst possible time. Then when weather permits, prune it back to an outward facing bud, any size you want, put it outside in bright light and begin to increase water and fert. With a little TLC these plants can last for years!

This message was edited Dec 30, 2007 2:47 PM

Thanks for the advise. I haven't over watered. If anything it may be under watered. I keep it in a well lit, cool room (it has a wall of floor ro ceiling windows facing east) next to the one that doing very well. I guess it will either get better or die, time will tell which. Anyway, THANKS!

Without a picture I can't say for sure, but I really think it's just the usual hibiscus response to stress--mine frequently do this when I repot them or change their conditions (like moving from outdoors into the greenhouse). It seems like practically overnight a number of the leaves go from green to yellow, then they eventually fall off. But as long as you're watering them properly they'll come back from this no problem.

It lost ALL of it's leaves but it looks like new ones are coming in.