I planted 2 of the perineal northern growing types of hibiscus that produce very large flowers and die back at years end, not the tropical bush type.

Anyway, I planted them for a customer about 6 years ago in the front yard where he gets unfettered sunlight all day, with very little breeze. They were of course potted when I bought the 2 and they only had like 3 or 4 stems at first and were maybe 3 feet tall.

But the next summer, they had gotten significantly larger with at least 10 stems per plant. The next summer after that, they each had about 25 stems, and they didn't just flower at the top of the main stems, they also grew lateral branches out from between each leaf level on the main stem, and each of those lateral stems grew LOTS of flowers as well.

The main stems were thick and healthy, 4 feet tall and they didn't begin to sag or fall over til they had produced all the lateral branches filled with flowers, then they had to be trellised somewhat. But by then, they had grown so wide and thick that they were crowding into the sidewalk and onto the driveway, so he had me dig them up all together. Those big plants didn't transplant well because their roots had to be cut because they grew out probably 5-6 feet outward and they were very thick so they died after transplanting.

But then new sprouts kept coming up from seeds these plants had dropped, so I dug up and transplanted a few of the little seedlings into different spots in these beds away from the walks. Last year they grew big and thick, with tons of flowers again, and had to be trellised due to the weight of all the lateral branches with flowers.

So this year, the new stems started growing up about a month ago but after they got up to just 2- 2.5 feet tall, they all started falling over! They didn't even have open leaves on them yet, and no flowers or even buds, yet they are falling right over! This is happening to all 3 of them and they are in 2 different beds, one in front and one on the right side.

I fertilized them with some Miracle grow just like before, only because we've had so much rain, I just sprinkled about 1/3 to 1/2 flat teaspoon of miracle grow powder around the base of each plant so as to not add even more moisture to the soil. This isn't an excessive amount of miracle grow for a fairly large outdoor plant either. Then we got LOTS more rain after that, literally about 10 inches in the past few weeks since! So if anything a lot of the fertilizer might have washed out.

Should I cut the stems back to the ground and hope for new ones to come
up, because they will not be able to hold flowers and laterals being thin like this?