Hibiscus Flowers in the Winter Garden
Most of us take for granted that by Christmas our outdoor hibiscus will no longer be blooming, or perhaps an occasional flower will appear as if by magic. Certainly we do not expect 18 or more blooms on our exotic hibiscus bushes in January and early February. This applies in southern California, coastal Texas, and south Florida. Of course, in colder areas blooms are out of the question, and most tropical hibiscus will not survive outside at all. But for the warmer parts of the planet and in backyard greenhouses, wouldn't it be nice to see flowers all year long, including mid-winter?
Well, this winter has brought photographic evidence to us, via the HVH Forum, of just such an occurrence. One of our long-time forum contributors, Darren, has had a banner winter, to say the least! He has posted numerous photos of his exotic hibiscus bushes, planted in his yard, that have 18, 20, even 26 flowers open at one time. The colors are not normal colors for these varieties, due to the effect of cold nights and low sunlight, but the flowers are there for all to see. It's very impressive! In all our 20 years of growing hybrid hibiscus varieties, we have never seen anything quite like it in mid-winter - or even close, to be honest.
We asked Darren to give us an interview, so we could find out directly from him what he has done to keep the flowers coming all winter. We consider Darren, who only started growing hibiscus two years ago, to be one of the most attentive of hibiscus growers. He spends a lot of time with his plants, and is very observant about the effects of fertilizer and other nutrients that he uses. His results this past summer were wonderful, but not unheard of in the hibiscus world. However, when January rolled around and his hibiscus were still blooming their heads off, we wanted to see just how he accomplished this. So without further ado, here is our interview with Darren:
We've seen the wonderful photos from your hibiscus garden this winter as a result of your frequent spraying with Super Nova Growth Enhancer. How many flowers have you been getting on your best bushes?
On my best bushes, which for this winter would be Chariots of Fire, Black Dream, Acapulco Gold and Valentine's Day, the average range is between 6 to 20 blooms open at one time. Chariots of Fire has had the highest count, at 26 flowers open on one day during the first week of February. I've noticed in winter the plants tend to cycle into a grow-bud-bloom-repeat pattern, as was observed by David in Vietnam on the forum earlier last year. During summer I don't see that too much - just numerous blooms opening daily while the plants grow simultaneously.
Wow, 6-20 blooms per day in winter! That's good for summer performance, but for winter it is downright amazing. To be clear, are these standard, garden-variety hibiscus, or are they the large-flowered, exotic hybrids that Hidden Valley Hibiscus specializes in?
All of my hibiscus are the large-flowered, exotic hybrid varieties, except for one lonely garden variety named Pink Versicolor.
Darren, how old are your hibiscus plants?
My 15 oldest plants I received from HVH in April 2010, and 13 of those were babies in 4" pots, except for Black Dream which I purchased in early summer 2010 as a 2-gallon whopper. I also have The Path that I purchased last spring. It looked to be at least 2 to 3 years old when I got it, and it looked like it had been pruned multiple times. The rest are anywhere from 6 months up to 2 years old.
To make so many blooms this winter, the best performers you mentioned above must have grown a lot since you got them almost 2 years ago. What size are they now?
In 2010, before I started my intensive nutrition program, in nine months of growing season, my best hibiscus only gained 1-2 feet (30-60 cm) in size.
When I started feeding them intensively during the very cool, abbreviated, 7-month growing season of 2011, their growth amazed me. What I really like is the fullness of their growth, which has led to an abundance of branches and buds all over the plants. They are all now over 3.5 feet (1.1 m) tall with Acapulco Gold almost at 6 ft (1.8 m) and Chariots of Fire over 5 ft (1.5m) tall. During this time I used my heavy fertilizing regime along with spraying Super Nova pretty much daily, minus a couple of two-week gaps when I went out of town.
These winter results are exceptional. How are you caring for the plants this winter and how did you arrive at this approach?
My first winter of 2010-11 really taught me a lot of lessons that I have carried over into this winter. Last winter was my first with these hibiscus, and my approach was to leave them alone and see what happened. We had a very wet, cold December 2010 and I started seeing problems pop up soon after, like yellowing leaves, dieback disease, and black-spot fungus on leaves, along with all growth and most blooms coming to a halt. So in January, when that month turned out clear and warm, I decided to go back to my regular feeding regime with HVH Special-Blend fertilizer a couple times a week to try and pep up the plants. Unfortunately, that just compounded the problem by adding additional water to the soil, which then made almost all plants shut down completely and lose most of their leaves, with the exception of Black Dream and Chariots of Fire.
So this winter I changed my approach to very limited water and feedings - at about one-month intervals so far. But if we get a lot of rain, I'll wait even longer.
The big change this winter, the one that seems to have made a total difference, is that I've sprayed Super Nova Growth Enhancer on all of my plants as often as possible. I'd say I average spraying Super Nova at least 3 to 4 days a week. If it is not raining but we have really cold nights, I pretty much spray daily to avoid any shut-downs. This is more often than the directions call for, but my thinking is that the directions are for use during the warm growing season rather than winter cold conditions. The hope was to replace growth hormones, that are not produced by the plants in winter, with the natural plant hormones found in Super Nova.
I am absolutely blown away by the results so far. Not one of my 70+ outdoor plants has shut down this winter, and all but a few have kept growing nonstop. This includes little potted plants that are not even a foot tall, as well as the big plants in the ground. It looks like I might have a 12-month nonstop growing season! The best part of all is that most of my plants have also continued to bloom, with many acting like it is still summer and putting out dozens of blooms at once.
Another amazing result I have observed is that I have even my littlest plants budding and blooming. They are so small I would never think they are nearly mature enough to flower. My Rum Runner, Jason, Black Dragon, and Fifth Dimension all have no business producing flowers, yet they are. The flowers are half the size of these small plants and it is winter. Amazing!
I have new branch growth everywhere, and I am convinced that by giving my plants the hormones and other key nutrients they need to be healthy and robust, they are so strong that the zapping and lethal effects of winter are offset. Bottom line, with the Super Nova Growth Enhancer I am giving my plants the things they struggle to make and need during times of stress like winter.
I can't tell you how exciting it is to think that it seems realistic and attainable at this point to not only have no shut-downs and recovery periods to endure before the more explosive growth of summer occurs, but to see plants actually growing and adding size during winter. It's amazing! What will happen in summer when, instead of dedicating the plant's energy to regrowing leaves and branches, it can just add onto the new growth already there without repairing the damage from winter? I can't wait to see how this plays out.
One last thing - I am also really good about picking off any yellowing leaves, as these seem to harbor the black spot fungus the most. I keep the ground under my plants very clean with no dropped buds, leaves or anything growing.
These are truly exciting results, Darren. To be honest, if we had not seen the many photos you have taken during this winter, we would think you were exaggerating. However, the photos of these hibiscus in massive bloom, with the flower colors altered as they would in winter, speak convincingly of the potential for this hormone replacement approach during winter. That said, can you give us more details of your fertilizing and growth enhancing programs for the hibiscus?
My approach here was aggressive after my plants shut down and had lots of dieback damage from January through March 2011, and then very, very slowly woke up due to an unusually cool spring and summer. What I was looking at was an abbreviated 2011 growing season, so not much time to gain a lot of size. I needed to get them to explode with growth so that they would be much bigger and stronger for the next winter to avoid any shut-downs again, and to prevent them going through the whole waking-up and repairing-the-damage loss of growing time.
So with that in mind, and the fact that all my plants are planted in the ground with unlimited soil dimensions, I figured this would allow me to heavily feed without it being too risky to my plants. I figured I could really push their growth limits and could possibly figure out the feeding limits at the first signs of leaf burn.
When I feed them, I pour over the entire planter with a little extra focus around the trunk. The reason for this approach is that I dug up and moved my Valentine's Day late in fall 2010, when it was still pretty small, and I was amazed at how far away the roots had grown in just 6 months - over 2 feet away and in a very horizontal manner. So I saw firsthand that if I watered just around the trunk, I might be missing large parts of their root systems. Also this spreads out the fertilizers more so they aren't so concentrated in one spot, like a pot would be, so I should experience fewer burn issues.
For the spring-through-fall growing season, for my bigger plants, 3-4 times a week, I used a hand-held 2-gallon watering can mixed with:
For my smaller plants I used:
- 1 flat tablespoon each Special-Blend Fertilizer and Booster
- 2 capfuls of Super Nova
I did see some minor leaf burn at this level, so it is the max I would do for now. As the hibiscus get bigger and more mature, I might either be able to give them more, or a maybe lot less if I see them so big and strong that they are doing great without much feeding, which is my hope. The resulting summer and fall growth was amazing.
In winter I feed once a month at most, in the same manner, but I only use:
- 1 flat tablespoon of Special-Blend
- No Booster
- 2 capfuls of Super Nova
Any other tips you want to pass along about how to maintain your hibiscus in winter and get the best results, most flowers, and healthiest bushes?
When spraying Super Nova, you have to really be aggressive and drench the plant. I mix up one capful of Super Nova in one completely filled 32-ounce generic pump spray bottle - a very strong dose. Then I spray everything - I mean everything but the buds and blooms themselves. I believe, Charlie, you have talked about "sprenching" (spraying plus drenching) on the forum before, and that is what I do. Also when you spray, think about it in a 3-dimensional way. I don't just stand in front of the plant and spray away. I move all around - up, down, underneath, behind, and even the under the leaves when I can. Not only does this max the amount of absorption, but it cleans off the leaves too, which helps with pests. The cleaner the leaves, the more light can be taken in, which I think is really important for our plants during winter when the light is a lot more limited.
If possible don't spray too late in the day when your plants don't have enough sunlight and warmth to dry off completely. Cold and wet winter nights are a breeding ground for leaf fungus and dieback disease. Also be aware that dry, cold, windy days and nights can really be damaging to hibiscus. I know that I need to spray as much as possible during those stretches of weather as well.
Also be aware of the daily temperature highs and lows. So far this winter here in Hollywood, the coldest nights have been around 36°F (2°C). Anytime I see that low temp near 40F or lower, I spray to give my plants as much of the things they need to counteract the zapping effects of the cold. I would say that this, combined with their maturing size, works well to offset winter's effects. But when I also see my littlest ones still growing, I am thinking the Super Nova is really making a difference.
I also keep a bunch of Plankets (frost blankets) ready to go in case we have any sort of heavy frost or freeze to hopefully prevent any catastrophic damages.
Thank you, Darren for sharing your very interesting approach with us. Readers, if you would like to see more pictures and read more about Darren's garden, go to his Hollywood page in the World Gardens section of our website. You can also see a lot more pictures of Darren's hibiscus all through our HVH Forum.
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New Photos In the
HVH Hibiscus Gallery
People often ask us where they can see photos of all the varieties we are growing for sale at HVH. The Online Store is constantly being updated, sold-out varieties are removed from the store, and newly available varieties are added. For that reason, the Online Store rarely, if ever, shows all the top 500 varieties we are actively growing and selling. To remedy this, we have now updated the HVH Hibiscus Gallery to show most of our currently active hibiscus varieties. Click on flowers in the gallery to see more photos and information about each variety. We hope you enjoy the show!
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Adventures With Hibiscus
Have you ever let your imagination run wild only to find yourself setting sail around the world in search of answers to hibiscus mysteries? Sound far fetched? Well, perhaps so, but back in the 1960's one avid hibiscus enthusiast did just that. His name was Ross Gast and he made three expeditions trying to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about where hibiscus hybrids originated as well as collecting rare hibiscus species to use in his hybridization program back in California.
Ross's explorations would probably be lost to us 60 years later except for the fact that he wrote travel letters back to a friend as he made these journeys. In the letters he describes his day to day explorations, reports on key findings, and speculates as to what it all means. These very personal and fascinating letters were gathered together and reproduced in book form by the American Hibiscus Society in 1980. Long out of print, Hibiscus Around The World by Ross Gast can still be found on used book sites and can also be read online at Wally Morgan's Australian website.
We believe that these letters are worth a read by every hibiscus enthusiast, and so have added a free, downloadable version to the HVH web site at this location:
Hibiscus Around the World by Ross Gast
It is very easy to save this PDF file to your own computer to read at your leisure. Click the link and the PDF file with either open in a browser window automatically (use "Save as" to save to your computer), or it will download to your download folder (double-click to open).
Ross Gast was also one of the avid hibiscus hybridizers in the 1950's and 1960's. His personal goal was to develop hibiscus that would better stand up to the climate in California, where he did most of his work. Later on, he spent some time on Hawaii where he worked on the Hibiscus Evolutionary Garden at the Waimae Arboretum. Ross hybridized and named one cultiver 'Ross Estey', after a nephew, and that worthy hibiscus can still be found at garden centers in California and elsewhere.
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Seedling of the Month...
'Groovy Grape'
Hibiscus 'Groovy Grape'
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Our newest seedling, 'Groovy Grape,' blooms with a 6-8" single in shades of purple with a red eye and softer purple rays and speckles. 'Groovy Grape' is one of our Fascinating Foliage hibiscus hybrids. Mother hibiscus 'Crème de Cacao' gave 'Groovy Grape' its fascinating foliage. The father, classic hibiscus 'Renaissance Blue' contributed the purple pigments and the rays and speckle. This is a pretty special hibiscus, all the way around. We released limited quantities available for sale at our store opening in January, and will release more in limited quantities as the year goes on.
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A Softer 'Groovy Grape'
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The Fascinating Foliage of 'Groovy Grape'
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