tropical braided hibiscus

18 years ago

While on vacation in Georgia, I purchased two tropical braided hibiscus trees with orange/coral colored blooms. They were nearly dead, but I brought them back to Illinois, transplanted them to bigger planters in miracle gro soil, and watered them well. They rewarded me with beautiful blooms for several weeks. now, all of the sudden they have stopped blooming. The leaves are still looking very healthy, but no flowers. Is this normal? The man at the nursery told me that if I brought them in for the winter they would bloom all year long. Do they go through cycles? Will they bloom again, or have I done something wrong? We just had several days of rain here, would too much water cause them not to bloom?

Also, how do I collect the seeds from these?

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Comments (3)

jenny_in_se_pa
18 years ago
They do go through cycles. Since they bloom on new growth, then they need to create that new growth, mature it, and then they start flowering. Many who have them ground-planted in the south selectively prune them to encourage branching and new growth year-round with various stages happening at the same time on the plant. They can bloom all year long including while inside, but in order to do that, they need alot of strong light and warmth.

If yours is able to produce seeds (many are self-sterile), they would come from spent blooms that form a good-sized seed capsule behind where the flower petals would have been. These need to dry in situ and then can be removed to extract any seeds from the casing.
beachbarbie
18 years ago
I'm assuming you have triopcal hibiscus, which don't self-seed.
This site: http://trop-hibiscus.com/hibseed.html
gives step by step instructions on the pollination process.
Good luck! I love growing tropicals from seed. Especially when people are SO impressed when you grew that gorgeous blooming specimen from seed!
Barb
mouse33
15 years ago
can this plant grow out side north of boston all year long