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Author Topic: Winter outside in So Cal  (Read 7730 times)
Nievesgirl

Posts: 975


« on: April 17, 2011, 10:37:48 AM »

So As some of you may know I took about 12 plants to my aunts house and they spent the winter outside  Shocked Shocked

I go to my aunts weekly to check on them ( every friday). This passed Friday I took at look at them, I have made two observations between younger and the older hibiscus. 

Some of the younger hibiscus look shabby. They have only a few leaves I pruned them back and next week I hope to put some supernova and the HVH booster fertilizer in their water.  The older hibiscus look like nothing happen to them ! Like Charlie has stated the older ones do better. Out of the bunch Cranberry muffin did fantastic ! Its HUGE now. Nightfire also did well looks like nothing effected it. Wild Dream is also looking really good, it did not grow as much as Simple pleasures or Cranberry muffin, but it looks really nice. I have one CV that just looks so amazing , I believe its older than any of the other cv's I have ( I got this from another vendor) I had to prune it back so much. Even after the prune it looked like a normal bush lol

One CV did well and it was the youngest of the bunch. Simple pleasures  Cool I bought this plant when it was in a 4 inch pot. It was maybe 6-7 inches high when I got it. It did so well it has all its leaves and is just as big as tCranberry muffin  Shocked Shocked

A reminder: I took plants to my aunts house in Fall 2010. So since I live in socal the weather has not been cold until maybe end of Dec and Jan. Only a few nights got to 39-42 degrees.




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~Kerry~
blupit007

Posts: 960



« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2011, 06:43:49 AM »

Kerry, I wish we could have winters like you.  I tell my husband that I want to move more south.  Pretty soon we will have no choice because my hibiscus are getting bigger, and I am ordering more and more every time Charlie and Cindy add them to the store!  And my space outside is limited.

Its good to hear that they can withstand the cold as they get older though.  I have 2 garden variety's stuck in one huge pot that is 2-3 years old.  I was going to keep it in the house an let it go dormant over the winter, but it got really bad spider mites (and it was way too big to add Kontos or hose off)  So I got mad and put it in our crawl space.  It got into the 30's down there, and there are no lights of any kind.  I watered it a little when I would remember it was down there.  So probably 3 times over the 4 months it was down there.  I just hauled it outside 4 days ago.  Looks like hell, but I scratched the wood and it is green.  Unfortunately the temps at night have hit 30 twice, but has been in the 40's at night since. I should take a before and after photo and add it.  Ill do that today for you.

Charlie, before I put it in the crawl space, I did a really good prune, about 2/3 of it.  Some of the tips are soft.  Do you think I should now do a bigger prune on it?  There is no new growth yet, but it just started seeing sunlight, and outside is cooler then the crawlspace at night.
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-Kristen
Charlie
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Posts: 3646



« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2011, 07:12:52 AM »

Kristen, I'm amazed it survived at all with the winter you had! I wouldn't prune it any more but once it starts growing you can remove any dead wood that does not put out new shoots or leaves.

Charlie
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blupit007

Posts: 960



« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2011, 11:05:10 AM »

Thanks Charlie, I just checked it out and there are a lot more squishy branches then I originally thought... We shall see.  We are forecasting 50-60º sunny days for the next week, maybe that will help.
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-Kristen
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