'Bonnie Lass' Twins 'Monte Carlo' in Page Border

Open House season is underway at HVH! Our next Open House for 2009 will be Saturday, June 27 from 11:00am to 3:00pm at the home of Charles and Cindy Black.

At our next Open House, we will have an extra-large selection of hibiscus in 6" pots, along with our other plants sizes, and all our care products. As always, the Open House will feature a bloom display of both old and new varieties, as well as future seedlings and hopefuls. Charles and Cindy will be available to answer hibiscus questions. Come one, come all! We look forward to seeing old hibiscus friends and to meeting new ones! Everyone is welcome, no invitation needed! The gate opens at 11:00am.

Click here for more information and driving directions for all our Open Houses..

Belle du Jour in a 6" Pot

The HVH 2009 Online Store is open with many exotic, tropical hibiscus varieties and all the care products your hibiscus need to stay happy and healthy. Happy shopping!

"Just HAD to let you know - the plants arrived today... someone had to wake me up, because I SWOONED... they are so beautiful! Thank you so much for your care, the awesome blooming hibiscus and the amazing customer service on my request and in RECORD time. Please know that I am now a customer and fan forever. Thank you" Diane D

"Thank you so much. I received the plants last week and they are gorgeous. I just placed an order for two more plants. Again, thank you for the beauties." Sheila J

Diane and Sheila are just a few of the many happy HVH customers. Read more customer comments here! The photo above shows the typical size of plants in 6" pots (this is cultivar 'Belle du Jour') at the time of shipping, although size varies by cultivar and we don't guarantee the open blooms. See Terms & Conditions for more information on our guarantees and shipping policy.

Expert Advice... by Charles Black

Charles Black answers hibiscus questions. Charles is a world renowned hybridizer and grower of exotic hibiscus, as well as the owner of Hidden Valley Hibiscus. He has created many award winning hibiscus varieties, such as Heaven Scent, Her Majesty, Simple Pleasures, and Love Story. In this column, he shares his expertise in growing hibiscus with our visitors. Enjoy!

Growing Hibiscus in Small Pots

I have very little room to grow hibiscus.
Can I keep them in small pots forever?

This is a question we are getting asked more and more, and the answer is, yes, you can keep hibiscus in small pots indefinitely. This is exactly what we do in our greenhouse with our own hibiscus collection. We have to keep our plants in pots that we can easily move around and fit close together in the always-limited space in a greenhouse. There are some tricks to making it work, but none of them are difficult.

'Chariots of Fire' Growing in a 10" Pot

How Small Can the Pots Be?

In our greenhouse, we have found that hibiscus will grow large and stay happy for many years in pots as small as 10" in diameter. A 10" pot is convenient because it is easy to pick up and move around, and can be put in almost any location. Any size larger than 10" is of course fine too! In our houseplant testing, we are currently experimenting with keeping hibiscus in very small pots and keeping them pruned to a very compact size. So far we have been successful with smaller pots, but it is too early to tell for sure how long our plants will be happy in smaller pots. But 10" pots have worked for us for years, and we can recommend that size with certainty.

First, Potting Medium...

If you plan to keep your hibiscus in a pot, the potting mix is very important. There are inexpensive products out there offered by mass-market sellers, but in our experience this type of mix dooms hibiscus to a short life and poor performance. These mixes are often too heavy and hold too much water for hibiscus. They can also contain ingredients that are toxic to hibiscus. Recycled sewage sludge is often used in inexpensive mixes, and although it is sterilized, the trace mineral content is unknown and can be quite detrimental to hibiscus. Instead, what is needed is a soiless potting mix (contains no real soil) like the HVH Potting Mix. A good mix is made of coco coir, peat moss, or composted bark to hold moisture and nutrients, along with sand and/or perlite to provide more drainage. Added organic ingredients that support beneficial microbial life in the pot, such as worm castings, bat quano, or other fully composted organic material, are very beneficial in the potting mix. If you are unsure, we suggest going to the best nursery or garden center in your area and asking for a high quality potting mix that drains well and contains some organic materials. You can always add the organic material yourself, such as HVH Worm Castings, and should ideally do so once a year in order to maintain the beneficial microbial life in the potting mix. Using high quality potting soil for your hibiscus is a crucial step in keeping them healthy and blooming for a long time to come!

Second, Nutrition...

'Simple Pleasures' in a 10" Pot

Anytime we keep hibiscus in less-than-perfect conditions, we need to maximize nutrition to help reduce the stress the plant experiences. Start with a good quality hibiscus fertilizer that has all the nutrients hibiscus need with as few contaminants as possible. Anything you put in your hibiscus pot is going to stay there for a very long time, unlike hibiscus planted in the ground. So be careful not to put anything into the pot that could possibly contaminate your hibiscus. Hibiscus prefer a light fertilizing on a frequent schedule, so if you have time to fertilize every time you water, this is the best possible way to keep hibiscus in small pots happy. Use 1/2 the dose on the fertilizer label each time you water, and watch carefully for signs of fertilizer burn - brown edges on otherwise healthy leaves. If you see signs of fertilizer burn, or "nitrogen burn," stop fertilizing for 2-3 weeks, then use an even weaker dose of fertilizer in your regular watering. The idea is to use as much fertilizer as you can without causing fertilizer burn.

Fertilizer Burn ~ Burnt Edges on Otherwise Healthy Leaves

If you can afford it, a Growth Enhancer is another option you can add to your nutritional program for your hibiscus. Growth enhancers provide different types of nutrition than fertilizers. They are loaded with the hormones and anti-stress proteins that plants themselves produce, but a plant that is stressed by a small pot may have difficulty making enough of these hormones and proteins. Supplementing with these nutrients helps keep hibiscus at optimum health levels, and gives them a break from having to produce all these proteins themselves.

'Belle du Jour' in a 10" Pot

One other nutritional product you may want to add to your arsenal is extra potassium, such as is found in our Hibiscus Booster. Hibiscus are voracious users of potassium, and if they become deficient in this element, their flowers will slowly diminish is size, number, and color intensity until they eventually stop blooming all together. The more stressful the conditions a hibiscus lives in, the more potassium it needs. Tiny amounts of this inexpensive nutrient will keep your hibiscus blooming with lots of big, colorful flowers year after year.

Third, Pruning...

Pruning becomes extremely important when you keep a hibiscus in a small pot. The shape of the plant will be determined completely by how well you prune it. The more branches you encourage your plant to grow, the more it will flower, since hibiscus tend to produce one flower at a time on each branch. In a small pot, you need to think about which direction the branches are growing and what kind of overall shape each branch you leave on will give your plant. If you want a branch to grow up to fill a space near the top of the plant, look for a node that is on the top side of the branch you're pruning, and prune just above that node. This will force a branch to grow from that node up into the space you need filled. Try to look at each node, and imagine where a branch growing from that node will shoot out, then pick the node that looks like it will create a branch in the shape you want. It's more of an art than a science, since we constantly turn our plants in their pots and cause sunlight to shift each time we turn them, but learning to think about these things when you prune will help you shape your potted hibiscus in ways that make it more beautiful while still keeping it more compact.

Fourth, Root Pruning...

A Lush 'Fat Actress' in a 10" Pot

The final step in keeping potted hibiscus happy is to prune their roots every couple of years. To check your plant's roots, gently ease the pot off the rootball. If the roots are circling the bottom of the pot and form a solid mass at the bottom, it is time to prune them. Root pruning is easy: Using a very sharp knife that you have sterilized with alcohol or hand sanitizer, slice off the bottom 2 inches of the rootball. Then add 2 inches of fresh, good quality potting mix into the bottom of the pot, pop the plant back into the pot, water, and voilà! You're done! As the plant grows new roots down into the fresh soil, the new roots will stimulate growth hormones throughout the plant, and the plant will produce more top growth too.

These are the basics of keeping hibiscus happy in small pots. Our greenhouse is full of very old, very happy potted hibiscus, so we know this works! Good luck to all of you with yours!

HVH Wake-Up Spray

Wake Your Hibiscus Up Out of Winter Doldrums

HVH Wake-Up Spray

The cold weather is finally ending and everything is sprouting - everything that is except one or two of your hibiscus plants that look like bare sticks. You're afraid that they're dead, but you carefully scrape back a little bit of the bark with your fingernail and see firm, green wood. So the "stick" is still alive! But it just sits there, doing nothing.

What your plant needs now is a helping of plant growth hormones that signal to the plant that it's time to form branches, leaves, and flowers. Usually a plant will produce enough of these hormones on its own, but sometimes when a plant is in less-than-peak condition, it's unable to do so. That's when we can help nature by adding these hormones artificially. One of the best hormones to bring hibiscus out of this dormant condition is gibberellic acid, the main ingredient in the HVH Wake-up Spray. We have tested this method ourselves on "stick" plants with surprisingly good results. It may not help every ailing hibiscus, but if your plants are struggling, it's sure worth a try. The spray is especially useful for plants damaged by winter cold exposure, but works equally well for plants damaged by lack of water, overexposure to heat and sun, or a bad insect infestation.

To pull a hibiscus out of dormancy, spray the leaves (or just the stick if that's all there is) heavily with Wake-Up Spray 2-3 times per week. Keep doing this for anywhere for 2-6 weeks. You'll see tiny green buds beginning to sprout. Keep spraying the entire until plant until you see tiny leaves beginning to grow. As soon as you see two small leaves develop, STOP spraying that part of the plant. Too much gibberellic acid will cause weak spindly growth. Once each node has 2 leaves, the plant can start growing well on its own.

Be patient! A hibiscus that has gone into deep dormancy can take several weeks to wake back up. But don't give up! As long as the stem is green beneath the bark, the plant is still alive. Good luck!