Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
carla17_gw

When can I transplant a Hibiscus?

carla17
18 years ago

I need to move one and when is the best time?

Thanks,

Comments (19)

  • Xeramatheum
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Carla, You should probably move it now so it can establish a good root system before the first frost.

    The method I use is a bit strange but it works. I first cut back the plant to 1/3 its size, then dig it up and hose off all of the soil to expose the roots and trim them to a uniform ball. I then soak the roots in a bucket of 1/2 strength fertilizer while I'm preparing its future home. I dig a hole twice the size of the root ball then fill it up with water and add pro mix (mostly peat and vermiculite) until I get a slurry a little thicker than pudding. I then plop the plant in the hole (by making a slurry you guarantee there will be no air pockets) and add more pro mix around it until it firms up. This method works very well on roses.

    X

  • carla17
    Original Author
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    X, although I appreciate your input, will transplanting now not cause stress? It is finishing up blooming now. If you think now is good, I will do that. Oh, the hole digging in this heat. It is so too hot for me right now. Do you grow roses?

    Carla

  • alicia7b
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    If I need to move a hibiscus, I usually dig it up and then pot it for a couple-three weeks to let it grow back any roots that it lost when I dug it up. Then it can be planted any time. I agree with X's advice about letting the hibiscus get its roots established before winter. Keep in mind that although heat is stressful, hibiscus really love heat as long as they have the roots to support the amount of foliage that they have.

  • Xeramatheum
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Carla,

    Yes I do grow roses. I use the above method on all my roses when planting from container to ground or moving them. This method does wonders for roses that are old and tired. Kinda like a day at the plant spa.

    You are right about the heat stress, that is why I cut them back to 1/3 of their size, essentially enough greenery to produce food, but not enough to require lots of water. How big is the plant and is it used to full sun? That is main thing to consider. If it is not used to full sun, then by all means wait. But I would certainly transplant no later than 8 weeks before your first frost so it can establish some new roots.

    The slurry method works because they have had a nice long drink of water with food in it and where they are going is super moist. A mud bath if you will. I think the reason some plants go downhill after being transplanted is because the new environ is totally different, light, dark and temp wise or that they are either getting to too much water, not enough, or there are air pockets. Pro mix is very root friendly. When I transplant in hot weather I usually do it in the evening. They usually look confused for the first 2 days but then settle in by the 3rd. The main thing is keep the soil moist but not soaking wet.

    I'd like to hear other gardens methods of transplanting established plants.

    X

  • carla17
    Original Author
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have some seaweed/fish emulsion, I could use that to soak. Thanks for the advice.

    Carla

  • Xeramatheum
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Carla, if I remember correctly fish emulsion is very high in nitrogen .. i would suggest diluting it to 1/4 strength for the soak. Too much nitrogen can burn can burn the roots.

    X

  • mrsboomernc
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    i'm hesitant to admit this in public, particularly in this forum of great gardeners, but ... i transplanted a 6'high, 8 year old dinner plate hibiscus in mid-afternoon when temps were 100+ degrees. the roots of this plant are very shallow - in fact, most of the dirt fell off as i lifted it out. i had the new spot ready for it, and i quickly plopped it down, watered it in, backfilled, and escaped back into the air conditioning. it looked a tad "confused" the rest of the day, but by the next morning it looked like it had never been so rudely tampered with. that was about ten days ago, and it has since loaded up with buds for its late-summer blooms.

  • alicia7b
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have brutally transplanted in midsummer H. coccineus that were also over 6' tall -- but they went into a ditch, underwater, with a rock to weigh down the rootball. They also had some afternoon shade. They looked like he!! for about a week, but recovered and are doing very well today.

  • jeffahayes
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I was waiting for OTHER responses before I even DARED chime in, as I'm not sure I qualify as even a hibiscus "journeyman" at this point, but from what experience I've had with the few species I'm growing, so long as they're hardy and like lots of water, as long as you get plenty of root and give them plenty of water when you transplant them, it's kind of hard to kill them...

    I started the "bed" that has the swamp hibiscus I posted pictures of elsewhere a couple summers ago primarily BECAUSE I had these two HUGE plants in the family (I have NO IDEA exactly WHAT their genus/species is, but they're "in the family"), that I had pulled out of Lake Greenwood the summer of 2001 because they were blooming and looked pretty and were growing right up alongside the water's edge in an area where it appeared "nobody" owned the land -- certainly SOMEBODY did, but it wasn't a cultivated area, or even in any kind of subdivision, so I figured they were growing wild...

    I put them in the largest aquatic pots I could find and put them in my little preform pond (which was all I had, then) that first summer, and promptly had to put rocks on top of the pots after they got bigger to keep the tall plants from tipping over in the slightest breeze... The following winter and spring I built my stream and lower pond and put the pots, which had sat out, on bare ground, UNTENDED, with what looked like DEAD PLANTS in them all winter, through snow, ice, whatever, in the pond, after they put out new growth (and I cut off the old growth)... By midsummer, they had sent roots out to cover much of the surface of the pond, in addition to what was in the pot, and then got tall enough they started falling over with any breeze, and I kept having to figure ways to keep them upright... I pulled them out of the pond the fall of 2002 and left them out all winter again, and sure enough, Spring of 2003, they put out new growth AGAIN, so I put them in the pond again... and sure enough, about July they started tipping over again... I'd had ENOUGH... so I built a bed for them, and included cannas and some other hibiscus in it (including the swamp hibiscus whose blooms I've posted elsewhere)...

    When I pulled them out of the pond, they had these LONG, TRAILING roots streaming through the holes in the 12" aquatic pots they were in. I simply cut them back to a manageable size and planted them in the middle of that bed, and planted things around them... Right now, they're blooming and more than 8 feet tall, and still in those pots, lol... surrounded by two different types of cannas, swamp sunflower, swamp hibiscus, another hibiscus I don't have a name for Siberian iris and other plants I don't know the name for, too, plus some Jacob Kline Monarda...

    This was SUPPOSED to be a "bog," but I think I punched too many holes in the "liner" to make it a real "bog." It has drainage rock on the bottom, covered with plastic sheeting that was in my streambed before I replaced it with EPDM liner, with probably too many holes punched in that, and that is covered with a foot or more of soil, which I water and fertilize regularly... I'm guessing the more aggressive plants have found a way past the drainage rock by now, lol.

    So anyway, the answer is... if it's a really hardy hibiscus and you do it right, you can transplant it NOW... otherwise, wait a month or so, lol.

    Happy Gardening!
    Jeff

  • carla17
    Original Author
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Jeff, do I detect a hint that women rule here? I must laugh at that.

    Carla

  • alicia7b
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I think the main issue with hibiscus getting its roots established isn't so much a matter of cold hardiness, as storing enough food in its root system so that it will form growth buds for next year. Like baptisia, H. coccineus and hybrids have large fleshy roots. As anedotal evidence for this, I planted a bunch of small seedlings relatively late last year and none made it.

  • jeffahayes
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I believe you're correct, Carla.

    Doesn't bother ME one iota! I LIKE being surrounded by a bunch of smart women who enjoy the same things as do I... The only bad part is that most of them are MARRIED :(

    Oh well, I guess ya can't have it all, huh?
    Jeff

  • cinamn808
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I know that this may be a ridiculous question, but I am new to gardening (but loving it). I recently put a hibiscus in the ground and it seems to be doing really well, despite the drought we've had in N.Georgia. From everything I have read, it doesn't seem likely that it will live through a winter here. Could I transplant it back into a pot before winter or will that kill it as well? Any advice?

    Thanks!
    Jess

  • alicia7b
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Is it a Chinese hibiscus? Except for Chinese hibiscus, hibiscus are hardy in zone 7. You can dig it up and repot it before winter.

  • zigzag
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    cinnamn - there's no such thing as a ridiculous question! Unless yours is a Chinese, as mentioned above, in my experience hibiscus are un-killable! I didn't like where mine was located originally - I was truly ruthless w/it (edward scissorhands style). Then I moved it out front where it has prospered.

    I cut it down to w/in 6" of ground every winter (not easy, those 'stems' become tree trunks) and every spring it sprouts newbie trunks and blooms its head off! I have learned to provide supports for the new growth, otherwise it goes all willy-nilly. It's looking great this year and loaded w/buds, but the JB's are just beginning here - lining up my war tactics !

  • diana3
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Help! We had an unusual amount of rainfall and some of my plant stalks and stems are mushy and droopy. What can I do to save them?

    Thanks

  • dottie_in_charlotte
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I had them on the west side of the house near a heat sink(brick fireplace chimney) in Southern CT. It died back to the ground in winter and recovered every spring for 18 years. It was a slightly elevated spot never getting too much water.
    I don't know what diana3 can do to save her hibiscus except to wait and hope it sends out new growth to replace the mushy droopy stalks.

  • Jessica Hunt
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I am relatively new to hibiscus cultivation. The Mr. Half came home one afternoon 4 years ago and said he'd seen a flower bed of mint and dinner plate hibiscus. He loved the smell and appearance, and after speaking with the owner, the seeming ease of maintaining such a bed. So I started some basic research, ordered some seeds,and now here we are. Year one all six verities I sproutted did well in the sunroom, but in the ground seemed to die before the end of summer. (I doubt I need to tell the tale of all the mint I have to share!) In fall and winter of year one I did a lot of work on the soil of that bed, moved some things around, and the in early spring began seeds again. (2020) This time I ended up with an extra plant surviving of the same color, so put that one in a pot, all the others in the ground. All did amazingly well, as bushes, lol. The bed all of this is happening in gets a ton of sun most of day, the with shade coming on later... It was covid, I was home, so I had also planted tomatoes, artichokes and peppers between the hybs... In an effort to prevent sunburn I placed a popup tent over the sunniest part of the garden. I have since learned the provided shade and perhaps too much water meant tons of green vertical Growth, but only one plant bloomed. It should have been yellow, blue, and red. It is white with a pink center. And, I had one of the plants from year one come back. (I have no idea what color it should be, but in it's now third year, is the only one to yet bloom, or even bud.) Mr. First bloom is blooming again this year, true to the white with pink center flower. The potted one, remember that extra? She bloomed the year, supposed to be a black but is instead a pale pink, maybe the 'peppermint' which was pictured as white with red streaks. Lovely almost lavender or some blooms showing the 'pepper ment' tendency. Plant 3 bloomed dark red, almost a light purple, and was also supposed to be black, but wait! Plant four, another that should have been a tri color bloomed a paler red, and on the same plant I am getting the white with pink center bloom!? What. The. Heck?!!!!! Plant five just bloomed today, same thing!!!!!!

    1) is this normal? I've read about the ph, nutrition, and flavonoids, but nothing addressing two so drastically different blooms on the same plant. No grafting, these are all from seed.

    2) we are in Sacramento, selling the house in August, and I'd love to take my hybs with me. Can I dig them up now after cutting them back, and put them in cold, dry storage until next spring without killing them?

    Lol help from a neophyte!!!!

  • HU-489776826
    2 years ago

    We sold over fathers home and its almist Christmas we live in oregon how do i transplant an 13 yr okd dinner plate hibiscus?

Sponsored
Bull Run Kitchen and Bath
Average rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars273 Reviews
Virginia's Top Rated Kitchen & Bath Renovation Firm I Best of Houzz