Blogfinger

Eileen’s hibiscus. Ocean Grove garden. August 31, 2017. Eileen’s photo ©  

Multiple blooms erupt at end of August, 2017.  Eileen’s photo. ©

By Eileen Goldfinger, house and garden editor @Blogfinger

Eileen’s secret recipe for her large potted hibiscus plant:    She has brought it into the house each of the last 4 winters, before the frost, placing it in a sunny window. This is a tropical plant, and frost will kill it.  It goes dormant in the winter, so it requires just light watering.

This spring, she took it outside into the rear garden where it gets partial sun, especially in the afternoon. Hibiscus needs sun.  Then she removed it from the pot and pruned off one-third of the roots.  After that, she replaced the potting soil and added timed release fertilizer  (“Osmocote”).   Then she placed it into the soil and pruned back the branches by a third. Watering should be light, weekly, and with weekly liquid fertilizer ” Organic Bloom” by Espoma.

All summer it has bloomed more than usual, and the blooms only last one day. Then, during the last week of August, the plant erupted with a record-breaking (for our garden)  8 simultaneous blooms occurring at one remarkable point.

MAKAHA SONS OF NI’IHAU   “I’ll Remember You.”