hibiscus starts from cuttings

17 years ago

Hello, hibiscus experts,

I am not an expert, no indeed, but have had a number of exotic hibiscus growing fairly successfully in my front yard in California for about six years. This year, I got several new hibiscus, including a pretty thing called Dancin' Dragon. Unfortunately, we had a freak late frost, which weakened this infant plant severely. It looked as though it was trying to recover, but then some animal got into the flower bed one night and snapped the poor little stick off at ground level!

However, I noticed that the leaves on this twig still looked perky the next day, so I sliced the whole thing in half lengthwise, and lo and behold, there was fresh green tissue everywhere underneath the bark. I dipped each half in Root-Tone, stuck each into potting material, and put each pot into its own vegetable bag, out of direct sunlight.

It's now about five weeks later, and there are half a dozen tiny new leaves on each potted twig, and this--after such a loooong buildup--is where my question comes in:

For those of you who have successfully rooted hibiscus from hard wood, when do they become sturdy enough that you can take the plastic baggie/greenhouse thing off them, and treat them like real houseplants?

Comments (3)

gardeniarose
17 years ago
I have rooted hibiscus the same way you did. I removed them from the baggie when they had enough roots to sustain them. I think mine had 3 or 4 roots that were about an inch long when I took the bag off. Good luck!
polemonium
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you, gardeniarose.
danishhibiscus
17 years ago
Hi all Hibiscuspeople. I'm a youg danish complete know-nothing-about-plants-person, but never the less i'm in love with my Hibiscus!!! I have had it since i meet my first girlfriend, we bought it together and even though i have had many girlfriends since her i hold on to it... never tell my new friends this ofcourse ;-). Since this plant means something very special to me i try to keep i growing, but i know nothing about this!!! so far i have managed to keep it alive for 5 years (it even lived with me as a "cutting" in america for a year! yeah i know it is illigal to bring plants into the coutry... but.... i could'nt leave it behind!!! well now i have cut it down a little bit, and i'm worried i do that wrong! Can anyone give me a hint? I heard you are suppose to cut the branches very close to the trunk?! is that true? and about cuttings. how do you do that?! i mannaged to get one growing back in 2000, i put it in a glass of water for a month i think... i thought that was how you do it? but i see that polemonium did it completely differently?! can you help me on this too?

hope you are all enjoyng the summer!!!