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mereb_gw

How to reshape this beauty

mereb
9 years ago

Hi all! First time posting so please take it easy on me!

I picked up this grafted, braided hibiscus at a local nursery in the spring. I'm located in Toronto so had it blooming like crazy all summer on our outdoor patio. In mid September I brought it in to winter in this sunny corner.

Of course she lost 3/4 of her leaves which was more than I was expecting but she's (as you can see) held onto all of her buds and has continued blooming despite the leaf loss.

Now I'm left with a sparse and rather ugly looking plant and I want to best prepare it for a fuller top/ healthier growth for next year.

How would I go about doing this? I've read up on hard pruning and I think I may need to go this route (leaving the braided trunk intact) but I'm not sure how hard it'll be on the plant as I wouldn't have many, if any, leaves left for photosynthesis.

Thoughts and opinions appreciated!

Comment (1)

  • Embothrium
    9 years ago

    The way to get it to fill in is to give it a situation that makes it happy and then watch all the leaves come back. The more light and humidity the better, if you had a greenhouse it would probably really like that (as long as it was kept at the right temperatures).

    If you come up with a situation it likes you might want to keep it there, so it doesn't get shocked twice per year. I know it is possible to grow and bloom these inside an ordinary building because the public library here used to have a veteran of some size in the middle of the main room, well away from the windows (which were nevertheless large and continuous) that even managed to bloom at least part of the time.

    Leaves make food from the sun which is stored in stems and roots. Cutting a shrub back forces it to use stored energy to replace the lost stem tissue, if you want your hibiscus to do better you will not whack it back. It already has the problem of having lost most of its leaves, which it will have to use stored energy to replace.

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