Hibiscus Gardens Around the World

Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, USA

Donna's hibiscus blooming in her greenhouse

Meet Donna, an expert in international shipping regulations during her workday, and a lover of both plants and animals during her free time. She lives in Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, a far northern part of the United States that has very long, cold, snowy winters. Donna grows northern plants outside all over her farm, where she also rescues and adopts abandoned farm animals and injured wildlife. But she has a special love for tropical plants, and in Wisconsin's bitter cold, a greenhouse is a necessity for tropical plants - especially for the many ultra-tropical plants that Donna loves.

Wisconsin is so cold that Donna needed a very high quality greenhouse to protect her tropical plants

Winter nights in Spring Prairie can drop as low as -18°F (-28°C) and the average high temperature on winter days is a bone-chilling 22°F (6°C). Typical snowfall each winter is 53 inches (135 cm). So to take care of her tropical plant collection, Donna and her husband had a 12 by 18 foot, wood-and-glass greenhouse built by a Four Seasons builder. Because of the severity of the winters, a traditional plastic greenhouse would not have keep her ultra tropicals alive. All the glass in her greenhouse is triple-pane to hold in both the heat of the sun and the artificial heat she adds. She heats her greenhouse with two electric heaters set at a minimum temperature of 60°F (15.5°C), but even with both heaters pumping out heat all night, temperatures can still go as low as 50°F (10°C) in her greenhouse on sub-zero nights. These temperatures are ideal for hibiscus though, and as you can see, hibiscus thrive in Donna's greenhouse.

Donna's wood-and-glass greenhouse

All glass is triple-pane

Donna also moved a 100-gallon Rubbermaid stock tank into her greenhouse for water hyacinth, water lettuce, and submerged plants for the very special wild mute swan she rescued. He was nearly killed as a tiny baby, but Donna save him and he now stands at 34 inches (86 cm) tall! In addition to the swan, Donna's greenhouse is home to wild anoles and green tree frogs that lay eggs in her water tank occasionally, and add even more life to her greenhouse. It truly is a slice of the tropics in cold Wisconsin!

Donna fertilizes with our HVH hibiscus fertilizer at every watering. She has 400 gallons of rainwater stored in 55 gallon drums that also serve as plant stands, as well as a pond for water storage. Caring for live animals in her greenhouse along with tropical plants presents its own challenges though, particularly when pests strike. Because of the animals, she tries not to use any pest control products or sprays in the greenhouse. Sometimes, when pest infestations get out of hand, she takes her plants into her garage to spray them. All that she is doing is working beautifully! She has many, many spectacular hibiscus - more than we can show here. We hope you enjoy the sampling below!