Awww that's sweet! I don't know the answer, but my blue satin hibiscus had a youngin' this spring too.

Hi Mehearty ~ what would you do w/ your young ~ wait a while or ween & plant somewhere?

I posted about my 20y/o Nikko in '09 ~ Luis suggested split-pot layering ~ easy to sever from mom. I also took a smallish clump w/ her own independent set of roots & potted ~ gave huge blossoms the very following year!

I hope to hear from some who've harvested a shoot/babe!

Have fun w/ your Hibiscus babe!

Early spring is best, but you're well within transplant time. You sure you need to? Can you wait? I like to let them grow for a year before I do anything. It's probably me, but I haven't had much luck transplanting babies. I guess you say it's gonna be problem, so maybe it's large enough to weather the shock.

Just moved 6 hydrangeas today, well, my garden guy did to accommodate a new fence. They're looking like they're on death's door. Wrong day to do it. Sunny, hot. They're all at least 5 years old and vigorous, hoping that holds. So it's a crapshoot if they're young or old.

Good Luck!

Wow ~ 6 & on record heat all over it seems!!! I'm keeping fingers crossed for you! I guess the fact that they were healthy & vigorous should be ++ & it's not that easy to kill Hs w/ good watch & care!

Thanks for your thoughts lsimms! I also wish I could allow the babe to grow a bit more where it sprouted, but I fear damaging the other 2 if I did & dig up when roots have spread out. I'll have to do it soon just waiting for this heat to blow over. I intend to pot the babe & coddle for a while!

Thanks again!

Discovered another Tardiva babe a smaller one ~ dug them up both today & potted. They both had their own roots not shoots from 7y/o mother bush ~ so that was easy.

They are sharing a largish pot for now I'll see how they both do ~ will try & create a tree out of the smaller one as she has only 2 main stems.

Just updating on the 2 Tardiva babes ~ both shared a lg pot to grow in ~ overwintered out doors tucked between bushes & fared well. Now in the ground & growing fast & happy to be on their own since mid-Mar our very early Spring this yr!

Along w/ the rooted broken top of Princess Kyushu a couple of seasons ahead ~ planted at safe distance from each other along the fence in my newly created sunny site vacated by cutting down a very old & dying crabapple tree. Hoping eventually to cover up fence! CLlic on last frame Kyu (3x2) in the corner & 2 T babes a ft or so round should catch up fast!!!

FWIW!

Here is a link that might be useful: Baby Tardivas site

Just added pix of the babes in the posted album. TIA for viewing & appreciate comments!!!

Nice pictures! I could not notice any tornado problems from the pictures but wow, that always sounds scary. To think that oh... 7 years ago? 10 years ago? I left work and headed towards downtown Fort Worth, Texas... just got on the Interstate... when all hell broke loose on the radio about a tornado going towards downtown, my route home no less. Did a u-turn back towards work and then drove home about an hours later when everything sort of calmed down.

When does late blooming Tardiva bloom for you?

G'Morn Luis ~ Thank you & so glad you chimed in here as I do have another question again.

But first ~ Mid-West isTornado countries & usually in Jun/Jul the first quick-touch-down we had was last April 2012 ~ pulled many grown trees as she rampaged over several states w/ her up to 200mph winds & speed some reports listed as many as 200 tonadoes that Sunday! We here are also the run-way for blizzards so pulled & tree damages are not uncommon.

My Kyu tree has gone thru many assaults as she is situated rt at the firing line of any storms that usually wraps around our back yard! This April my very old pear tree was the victim w/ huge branches downed but we were able to save & am rejuvinating w/ help from an arborist ~ I needed her to shade a nice bed, never mind fruits the squirrels discovered & dig the seeds anyway.

BTW all my Tardivas put on shows in July & have never failed as well as all the H panic QF of course much sooner. This Sept finally the li'l babe#2 produced a few clusters ~ yay!!!

?? ~ Both 8 y/o Tardivas have grown to be nearly 10hx9w bushes & the mature blooms are weighing down their canes ~ cause for worries when added wt from snow this Winter. I guess I can clip some of the blooms which I never had (caused breakages) ~ I'd like to make them smaller should I shape now or in Spring & how to go about it?

Appreciate your thoughts & sorry for this long post! TIA

Hello, ditas. You could prune it now but be a little careful. I have heard from others who Fall-pruned their paniculatas down to slightly above 2 feet and then an unexpected sudden deep freeze arrived and killed them. I have talked to some nursery owners who have simply said that this is a well known problem (to them) with paniculatas. I have read in books that their stems are considered brittle and can be broken by strong winds so your problems may be related to the same thing. To help alleviate it in winter, I would remove some side growing branches and all of the blooms when the plant goes dormant such that snow caught up in the blooms does not add more weight on the canes. And I would check if a little pottasium or phosphorus if it is needed. You could prune as you want to but I am wondering if the new branches would be weaker than the ones you now have... making the problem worse. Maybe experiment: select a stem (or a few) and prune every other side branch and see how that helps/hurts next year.

Thanks for your thoughts & sharing what you have learned & read!

Yes, the canes of my H paniculatas are brittle ~ I've been able to mend successfully, some storm damaged canes by splinting/wrapping some wet sphagnum moss along, as I tie the split stems together & watered around the drip line w/ sugar solution (a suggestion from a a garden club member) ~ stem mended much quicker. Wonder why sugar does help w/ healing ~ do you know Luis?

This afternoon I went ahead & clipped some of the blooms ~ here & there to alleviate the arching of stems from the weight of the clusters on both the Tardiva & the Kyushu tree! Bothe look so much better. I'll just wait 'til Spring to shape them.

Thanks again Luis!

I have not tried it in plants but I was aware that in people, sugar (granulated sugar, that is) can be used in wounds because it helps the skin and kills bacteria. The exact way it accomplishes that is a mystery to me but it supposedly inhibits the growth of bacteria. Honey has also been used for that purpose. Interesting that someone has used a similar approach with plant injuries. I wonder if liquid molasses also helps... I have a lot leftover from a time when someone was showing me uses of organic products.

Wow Luis ~ I just learned something new today!!! My problem will be the fear of ants & bees following me to bed Ughhhh! I don't even like fruit scented shampoos for same reason ~ ha ha ha!

For a while I worried that the ants will crowd around my OL Pee Wee that I was mending & drizzled w/ sug-H2O mix ~ not a single ant went near split Pee Wee thru the healing time ~ as the garden expert promised!!!

Luis ~ Going Back to Fall-pruning my oversized H paniculatas ~ too chicken to dare due to possible deep-freeze loss!

I just decided to thin the blossoms to half by clipping here & there ~ hopefully preventing breakages of brittle old woods from piled snow & blizzardy-winds of Winter by alleviating the weight of those huge (seedy) spent blooms!

FWIW ~

Oh, yes, that time of the year. It is merely starting here. Some Crape Myrtles are turning colors but most trees are still mostly green.

You just reminded me of someone who posted a link to a magazine picture (I think that is what it was) in which the owner of a house had two paniculatas in bloom. One was probably an early flowering and the other one was probably Tardiva-like (late flowering) but the brown blooms on one and the white blooms on the other came out looking great in that fall picture.