Hibiscus Branching

[farmer d]

After carefully observing my hibiscus for over a couple years now I have noticed a pattern with many of my plants that are planted in the ground.  At some point (some sooner than others) the plant will send out one or more new branches almost horizontally far away from the main stem.  What catches my eye is how out of proportion this branch tends to be compared to the natural symmetry that the plant is achieving with all it's other branches.

I first noticed this two years ago when my Bridal Path sent out this giant branch from close to the base of the plant way out to the side over 2 feet away.  Slowly over time it is developing a bunch of new branches which are all pointing vertically up.  Some Like It Hot has a bunch of branches like this but that plant is a lot more open by nature but now I am seeing a lot of new branches filling in the open spots and they are all vertical too.

In the pic of Rise and Shine and Vin Beaujolais you can see at the bottom that they both have also recently sent out very low horizontal branches far from the stem that have now crossed passed each other so this might present a spacing challenge down the road (or one nice green hedge from the ground up).  VB really shows how out of proportion this branch is compared to the rest of the plant so I can now envision all that empty space above this branch will be filled in by her - and by R&S so this should prove interesting.

Anyways point being that these plants really want to be very large and wide by nature when planted in the ground.  I think we all underestimate how wide, I'm thinking 5' + at a minimum unless a more compact grower say like Confection Perfection.  So in the end I am even more reluctant to prune my plants as I see that if you give them 3 or 4 years they rather quickly send out those horizontal base branches way out showing how wide they will eventually get and then fill out.  

If you look at the pic below of Bridal Path you can see how far that one branch is growing away from the main stem.  It is really far away, even past Sea of Tranquility behind it.  Now once that grows all those new vertical branches up off this side branch the plant will easily double in size for it's width.  What is interesting is that the branch currently seems a bit too thin to handle such an outcome but I'm sure over time it will enlarge and strengthen to support this.  Midsummer Night is a good example of a plant that does this from the start.  Lots of long thin branches that tend to flop at first but over time they get strong and lift up nicely.

Farmer D

[farmer d]

Valentines Day shows what happens after this process completes itself as you can see the plant has filled in very nicely after all those low side branches grew out well over a year ago.  Now I have to stake the side branches and make them curve up more drastically then they would have on their own to create enough space for the plants next to VD.

Rainbow Sherbet is in the middle of this process as it sent a branch way out on the open side that would totally interfere with whatever I plant there in the future.  You can see the stakes training these side branches to curve up vertically instead of remaining horizontal.  Too bad I am space constrained to have to do this but I in the long run I want to see what the plants do since I am not pruning them.

By the way on the right of VD is Rise and Shine & Vin Beaujolais.

Farmer D

[jpiper82]

I have a 2gal Magic Moments that I got this year from Charlie, that was pruned way back prior to me receiving it that is doing the same thing, The plant is growing likke crazy, had 3 of those big 10" blooms yesterday. This is the plant I could not grow in Texas!
John