My brother is babysitting my plants :-\

[blupit007]

So, I'm going away for 2 weeks in 2 weeks.  Its our honeymoon... and the only one who can help me out is my poor brother... He is plant retarded.... BUT he did get an avocado pit to sprout and grow this summer, so he is not a total lost cause...

He is also watching my dog, cat, and 2 bunnies... not as worried about them as I am with my hibiscus.  Does that sound bad? 

I think we are going to lower the heat (he is taking the dog, and stopping by the house once a day to feed the cat and bunnies) so how cool can I make the house without causing my hib's to freak out?  We keep it around 65ish, up and down due to the wood stove and sun, they get good sun... but will drop it down to about 55-58 when we go (I think).  Any thoughts?  I do have several seed pods that are on a couple different plants, don't know if that makes a difference.

Any precautions I should take?  I am going to walk him through it.  Tell him to give a little bit of water when they look dry? Or maybe it would be easier just to water a little bit on Wed & Sat?  Some really dry out within 3 days with the temps we keep the house at now...  Help!

[Darkhorse]

The warmer you can keep your house the better, although 55 seems fine to me.  You might lose your seed pods there, though.  My one and only seed pod ever fell off Saffron because it was too cold.  It was Sunkissed Blonde x Saffron...  will do that cross again if/when SKB makes it back.


Sorry for the tangent!!    Anyway, with watering maybe have him water every third day or every other day?  I wouldn't say wait until it looks dry because it sounds like they may be dead by the time he figures it out... lol...

[blupit007]

Oh so true... I was just worried to have him water every other day if it is going to be chilly in here.  As of right now, the temps get down to about 62º before the heat kicks on at night, so they are used to the cold.  Is spring here yet?!

[Charlie]

Kristen, the temperatures are OK although a lot depends on whether it warms up in the daytime or not. There are places people grow hibiscus, around San Francisco for example, where they are lucky if the night temperatures stay above 50F even in summer. But the days warm up quite a bit and the hibiscus grow and bloom well. I've run parts of our greenhouse in the low 50's at night just to save money on heat and the plants do OK because the days warm up. So, if the day temps in your house will get up to 70F at times I wouldn't worry about the temps at night being in the 50's. OTOH, if the temps stay in the 50's day and night the hibiscus won't like it much but still should not be seriously damaged by 2 weeks of that.

The bigger danger to them is water - too much or too little. I'm sure you plan to water them right  before you leave so if your brother will water them twice more, at 5 day intervals, they should survive. The most common thing that happens is the "care giver" forgets to do it until the day before you return and then drowns them trying to make up for it. Ah well, hopefully that won't be the case this time. Showing him how to water so that the root ball is wet but not too much standing water is left behind will be the other important point. If you could also teach him to identify a wilting plant and water it if he sees that, it would help with the one or two plants that don't have the same needs as the others.

Best of luck! At those low temperatures even if they don't get enough water they should survive.

Charlie