I have a couple of hibiscus house plants that live on my windowsill which if left to their own devices would grow into large shrubs. Like most of our house plants in warmer climates they would be garden plants.
Malar at My Little Garden in Malaysia often features plants in her garden that we would buy to keep indoors - I know she has hibiscus in her garden and so will probably smile at me having a couple inside the house.
I've had my two hibiscus for several years now - one has red flowers and the other orange ones.
The flowers are huge but very variable - sometimes single, sometimes double, sometimes a pastel colour and at other time a more intense colour. The red one on the left often has pink flowers and the salmon one on the right often has deep orange flowers. The plants are never exactly covered in flower but they have a few flowers throughout the year.
At the moment some of the leaves are turning yellow and starting to drop off so I took this as an opportunity to do some pruning! This keeps the plants bushy and also means they don't grow too large for the windowsill. I must admit when I first did this it was with some trepidation!
So here's the red plant before and after:
And here is the orange one before and after:
As it won't have lots of compost I think I'll add a slow release fertiliser and some water retentive granules.
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I'm not one so much for indoor gardening...I did try keeping a bonsai tree once ( well if I'm honest three times!!) but no matter how closest I followed all the advice I ended up killing them so i just stick to outdoor gardening now. Your hibiscus look lovely and healthy!!
ReplyDeleteWe have lots of houseplants, Tanya but I rarely read up on the advice just watch what the plant does and act accordingly - they tell you when they are unhappy!
DeleteI loved indoor gardening as a teenager, I had 4 hanging baskets in my room with plants in them. My friends all thought I was quite strange though.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping they weren't the wire hanging baskets Liz - soggy carpet!
DeleteI have a couple of orchids and that's it, I only have those because they're so easy to look after. I'd much rather have cut flowers in the house than plants. It looks quite severe how you've pruned the hibiscus but I'm sure they'll apreciate it and they'll grow back nice and bushy.
ReplyDeleteCan you get your orchids to flower again Jo, I haven't succeeded in this yet but am trying again!
DeleteIs it normal for the Hibiscus leaves to turn yellow and drop off, or have the plants got some sort of disease?
ReplyDeleteNo disease Mark. They often get yellowing leaves at some point which fall off to be replaced by new fresh green leaves. Most evergreen shrubs shed leaves at some point but usually so few at a time that we don't notice - in a pot plant it's more noticeable. It is also a sign that it is needing some feeding as the compost is running out of steam. One of the problems of keeping it fairly root bound.
DeleteWhat a lovely hibiscus collections! They look so healthy even though grown indoor!
ReplyDeleteHopefully, Malar once they have been given some fresh compost and fed they will produce flower buds again and forgive me for being severe with them
DeleteHi. I'm also having hibiscus by my window. Yours are really beautiful. I was worried about the yellow leaves I saw this morning, but not anymore after reading your page. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTry potting in fresh compost Princess and then after 6 weeks or so feed it until autumn.
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