New York City, USA

Jessica lives in New York City. She came from Texas, where she grew hibiscus outside easily. When she moved to New York, she boxed up her hibiscus, brought them with her, and jumped into a new kind of urban garden.

The view from Jessica's balcony

To Jessica's surprise, the summers in New York City are great for growing hibiscus. The summers are not as brutally hot as the summers were in Dallas, Texas, and she actually gets more flowers in the more moderate summer weather of New York City.

"I have my plants on a 7' x 11' terrace on the 15th floor overlooking the corner of Park Ave," says Jessica. "Our terrace faces west, so the plants get hot afternoon sun for about 6 hours. Unfortunately this means daily, sometimes twice daily watering in the summer, when temperatures are in the 90's F. You can see in some of the photos that I have pushed the plants against our trellis to provide some shade during the hottest parts of the days. During the spring and fall, when temps are milder and it is rainier, I move the plants to less shade and reduce watering."

'Heavy Metal'

A seedling Jessica hyrbridized

Snow in New York on the street below Jessica's apartment

Winters in New York are cold and snowy. When winter comes, Jessica moves her hibiscus plants inside and gives them supplemental light. "I have to be careful not to overwater in the fall and winter," she writes, "as I learned the hard way. I lost some seedlings last winter to root rot."

Jessica's uses supplemental light inside in winter