AboutDarlene K. Kittle Expertise I have been a Master Gardener for 19 years and I raise around 300 houseplants a year including tropicals, succulents, and cacti.
Experience She is also studying the Japanese art of bonsai with tropical plants and is President of the Fort Wayne, IN Bonsai Club.
Question I live in chicago, i have a red flower hibiscus,bring it inside for winter. Its in a very large pot,like 2 feet deep, 14 in across..Flowered great inside, now outside since may 15th or so. not too many buds, and the leaves look like a pale droopy color not a nice deep green. Its been getting alot of water with all the rain, and i did have to straighten it out in pot , it was leaning bad.i fertilized it, water soluble kind the other day, I dont see any bugs on it, any ideas...
Answer Jim,
Is it getting full sun all day long? It needs as much sun as possible to get that deep green color and lots of buds will take time to form. You needed to be giving it lots of sun and fertilizer while it was inside also. If it was leaning bad it sound like you may have been overwatering it while it was indoors and the roots have rotted. Hibiscus needs to dry out totally between each watering especially during the winter and never be allowed to sit with water in the drain tray. Since it is so large and it would be difficult to pick it up to empty the drain tray I suggest that you get a turkey baster and use that to suck excess water out of the drain tray an hour after you water it. Also empty the drain tray after each rain. The roots will slowly grow back and the plant will eventually green um and bloom more but it will take time if the roots are too badly rotted. A 1/2 cup of epsom salts sprinkled on top of the soil before you water it next time will help the roots grow faster. Good luck.
