Midsummer Night

[Dana]

Woke up this morning to a Beautiful Fully opened Midsummer Night Bloom!! It's GORGEOUS!!   I have one question.  With this type of hibiscus do the leaves droop naturally? They have been droopy since I've gotten it in so I wasn't sure. No signs of sickness at all and it blooms regularly. 

Thanks,
Dana

[Charlie]

Nice bloom, Dana! How often does the plant get water? Is it in the same pot it arrived in? If it is in the same pot it probably needs more water. We watered the 6 inch size pots at least once per day before it was shipped.

You could also transplant it to an 8 inch wide pot but if you do please review the transplant tips on the web site at http://www.hiddenvalleyhibiscus.com/care/potting.htm

Bigger pots do not need to be watered as often.

Charlie

[Dana]

Thanks Charlie!  I fell in love with this one as soon as it opened it's first bloom ! When I had received my shipment the third week of June I transplanted all 5 of the hibiscus received (2 Sky, 1 Compassion, 1 Midsummer Night and 1 Sparkling Water) into bigger pots I do believe they are about 10" pots.  I water every other day or so unless it's super hot then it's every day.  Here lately I haven't had to water as much, I live in North Carolina and it's been raining almost non stop for weeks.  I have the pots on a covered porch so they are not getting rained on.  I fertilize with the bloom booster once a month and the special blend fertilizer once a week.  Other than the drooping foliage It's thriving.  Tomorrow I'll get a better picture of the whole plant and post so you can see what's going on.

Another question I have, with being in North Carolina would you advise leaving them in pots permanently or will they do well in ground over winter?  I have grown Hardy hibiscus and Luna's in ground for about 4-5 years now and have never had a problem with them coming back bigger, with more blooms year after year.

Dana

[Dana]

Here is the picture of the Midsummer night with all it's foliage. It droops at the bottom but toward the top it is fine. This has been this way since I received it in June.

Thanks again,
Dana

[farmer d]

Dana your MN plant looks great, not too much to worry about from what the pics show.  Could be that is how your plant will behave as I have a Flickering Flame in a pot and the lower leaves do the same too. 

If you have HVH booster I would give it some with the special blend each week or add a little bit more if you're already using it.  Maybe the extra pick up might lift them up...

Farmer D

[Dana]

Thank you!  I wish I'd have gotten a reply a lot sooner.  since no one replied and i didn't know what else to do I took it out of it's pot and rinsed the potting soil from the roots and transplanted it. I didn't have any bleach on hand. Now that it is transplanted it's going through shock. It's perked up over the last few days but it still has a little way to go to get back to normal.

[Charlie]

Yikes! A gentle hint to anyone considering a radical solution to a minor problem - post about it before you do it. I would have responded with strong encouragement not to bare root this plant  which is the equivalent of major surgery. Such small idiosyncrasies show up on hibiscus all the time and are best dealt with by adjusting the basics of water, light, fertilizer, etc, carefully and only if needed. Usually these small changes in leaves fix themselves with no help from us.

I'm glad to hear that the "patient" is recovering!

Charlie

[Dana]

Charlie No one replied to my post for two weeks therefore i did what was listed here on the site "Sometimes a rescue can be achieved by removing the wilted plant from the pot, removing as much soil as possible from the roots, and then washing the roots with clean water. Afterwards repot in fresh clean soil mix that is moist but not sopping wet" 

The "Patient" Actually has a lot of new growth on it however, it is still recovering from the shock slowly.

[Charlie]

Dana, I'm really glad you read the info on the site. We try to cover everything but still we get more email than we can answer with questions about topics fully covered on the site. The quote you posted applies only to hibiscus that have completely wilted from top to bottom and much more severely than your photos showed. Since you have not seen that I can understand why you would think the small amount of wilting on some lower leaves might be the same thing, but luckily it is not the same as hibiscus wilt disease. That is usually fatal but what you see is just a small reaction by the plant and we will likely never know the cause.

Charlie

[farmer d]

Dana I feel bad I or others didn't see your post more quickly.  I'm glad to hear your MN is starting to grow again so hopefully it will recover sooner.  When I first started out I would strongly react to all sorts of things I observed but over time I am learning to analyze a lot more before taking action.  All we can do is learn from these events and try to keep our hibs as happy as we can.

Charlie gives good advice to post first what you're considering doing and see if you get some good direction before taking action.

Farmer D