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Hibiscus: How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Hibiscus Flowers | The Old Farmer's Almanac

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Hibiscus

A dinner plate sized Lady Baltimore Pink Hibiscus in the garden.

A Lady Baltimore Pink Hibiscus.

Photo Credit
Bryan Pollard/Shutterstock
Botanical Name
Hibiscus syriacus, H. moscheutos, H. coccineus
Plant Type
Trees, Shrubs, and Vine
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Part Sun
Soil pH
Slightly Acidic to Neutral
Bloom Time
Summer
Fall
Flower Color
Blue
Multicolor
Pink
Purple
Red
White
Hardiness Zone
5
6
7
8
9

How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Perennial Hibiscus

Catherine Boeckmann
August 7, 2023
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With huge, colorful dinner-plate flowers, perennial hibiscus plants add a bold, tropical effect to the garden. They are also highly attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds! Here’s how to plant, grow, and care for hibiscus flowers.

About Hibiscus

There are many types of hibiscus. This growing guide covers perennial hibiscus grown for their strikingly-beautiful, big, disc-shaped, hollyhock-like flowers that can measure up to 12 inches across!

Perennial hibiscus can grow up to eight feet tall, but there are also dwarf varieties of only two to three feet tall. 

Read Next

Planting

When to Plant Hibiscus

Hibiscus can be purchased as young plants from nurseries and are best planted in the spring. Or, they can be rooted from a cutting in the spring.

If you wish to grow hibiscus from seed, sow indoors 12 weeks before the last spring frost date. Soak seeds in very warm water for one hour before sowing. Alternatively, seeds can be sown outdoors after the last expected frost date.

Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

  • Choose a site that gets full sun; they’ll grow in partial sun but will not flower as well.
  • Hibiscus prefer well-draining soil with plenty of organic matter, and neutral to slightly acidic soil.
  • To avoid breakage of the long stems, plant hibiscus where they won’t be exposed to strong winds.

How to Plant Hibiscus

  • Plant potted hibiscus plants so that their stems are just at the soil surface.
  • To root a cutting in the spring, cut off a branch that is 5 to 6 inches long and strip off lower leaves. Plant cutting in a pot with a mix of three parts sand and one part peat. Roots should form within a few weeks. Transplant them from the pot into ground.
  • The hibiscus species that die back each year can be spaced 2 to 3 feet apart. Consider the potential height and width (up to 12 feet and 10 feet, respectively) of a mature plant before planting.
  • Water the plants well at the time of planting.
Growing

How to Care for Hibiscus

  • Hibiscus needs frequent watering, especially when young and new. When watering, do so deeply and thoroughly, drenching the plant.
  • Mulch around the plant to retain moisture and to provide winter protection for the roots.
  • To encourage rebloom, either remove the spent flowers before they form seed heads or prune plants back by one-third after a flush of bloom is finished.
  • Perennial hibiscus will freeze back to the ground each winter; cut old stems to the ground.
  • Hibiscus bloom on new wood (this year’s growth), so pruning is best done in the spring.
  • In early spring, remove dead stems from established plants and apply a balanced fertilizer.
  • Over the growing season, hibiscus can benefit from a fertilizer that is high in potassium, medium to medium-high in nitrogen, and low in phosphorus, as the plant can be sensitive to phosphorus.
  • Mature plants can be divided in the spring, not fall.
Recommended Varieties

Scarlet Swamp Hibiscus (H. coccineus): This plant, also known as Texas Star, has 5-petaled, brilliant-red flowers. It grows to a height of seven feet each growing season, dies back to the ground every winter, and resprouts in spring.

Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos): This is the classic dinner-plate hibiscus due to the large size of its flowers. These large, fast-growing plants bloom from August to October, and each plant may flaunt several 10 to 12-inch wide flowers at once. A few of the many popular cultivars are:

  • ‘Anne Arundel’ has pink flowers, nine inches in diameter, on plants five feet tall.
  • ‘Kopper King’ has light pink to white flowers with a burgundy center, 12 inches in diameter, with coppery red deeply cut leaves.
  • ‘Lady Baltimore’ is a popular old variety with pink flowers and red centers, on plants five feet tall.
  • ‘Lord Baltimore’ is another old variety with red flowers on five-foot-tall plants.

 

Gardening Products

Wit and Wisdom
  • The plant has been used to soothe headaches, aching limbs, coughs, and inflammations. 
  • Hibiscus tea is made from parts of a different type of hibiscus, Hibiscus sabdariffa—also known as Roselle or Florida Cranberry. It’s native to West Africa but is now grown across Central America, the Caribbean, and even Florida.
  • In Victorian times, giving a hibiscus blossom to a person meant that the giver acknowledged the receiver’s delicate beauty. Learn more about the language of flowers.
Pests/Diseases

Insect pests of hibiscus include aphids, whiteflies, and Japanese beetles. 

Clean up all plant debris to avoid fungal diseases which can cause leaf spots.
Don’t crowd plants, and keep mulch from touching the stems to avoid blight. 

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Comments

Rhonda (not verified)

4 days 18 hours ago

My hibiscus has healthy green leaves and buds all over but they often die before they opening. It was almost dead when I bought the house. I trimmed it, watered and fertilized.

Sonja Bauer (not verified)

2 months 2 weeks ago

I have 4 Hibiscus plants that I kept in the basement last winter and brought them out this spring. The plants have leaaves on them but are not blooming. What is wrong with them.

I have a hibiscus plant that hasn’t bloomed.What can I do?

Hi Nellie,

There can be a number of factors that will prevent your hibiscus from blooming.

Hibiscus need at least 6 hours of sunlight a day and lots of direct light promotes blooms, so too much shade can impact your plant. Hibiscus plants also have high water needs that should be on a schedule. An extended time without water can affect blooming, while too much water can as well. Water when the soil is mostly dry but still a bit damp because they do not like to dry out completely. 

Fertilizing can also play a part because while used in the correct way it can allow your plant to thrive, it can also do the opposite if it does not get the right balance. (See above for fertilizing instructions.)

Depending on the age of your plant, pruning can also help but it may be a longer term solution. Just remember not to remove more than one-third of your plant at one time.

Hope this helps.

Linda (not verified)

3 months ago

I have two rose mallow hibiscus that are over 6ft tall but have no flowers, not even buds. ?? This is the second year they have done this - grow like crazy but have no blooms. I fertilize, water, etc. What else can I do?

Hi, Linda,

Do they get more than 6 hours of sun per day? Lots of sun will encourage flowering. 

Also, in general, a fertilizer that is too high in nitrogen can encourage leaves and shoots but discourage flowering. However, even a balanced fertilizer might not be the best when it comes to hibiscus. Even though phosphorus usually encourages flowering in plants, hibiscus can be sensitive to it, so some recommend that one choose a fertilizer that has medium to medium-high nitrogen (N), low phosphorus (P) and high potassium (K). 

Hibiscus also loves organic matter and lots of water in well-draining soil. Make sure the soil pH is slightly acidic. 

Hope this helps!

Barbara (not verified)

3 months 2 weeks ago

Small black bug on the flowers before they open and after. How do get rid of them. I’m hoping with the same as aphid solution.

Thank you

Theresa (not verified)

3 months 3 weeks ago

One hibiscus plant has curling leaves! Other’s have blooms not opening and falling off. I do not see any insects

gini (not verified)

3 months 4 weeks ago

I have 3 mature hibiscus plants. The blooms on one seem to be shriveling. The other two are fine. Any ideas? I don't see any pests on it.

Tammie Crane (not verified)

4 months 1 week ago

Well, I thought I bought Rose of Sharon with the huge trumpet flowers, but it was hibiscus with smaller flowers and it's already at least 8 feet tall with no blooms and falling over into the entire flower bed and on the lawn. It was planted 2 years ago and did fine last year. I have no idea what to do besides dig it up. I'm in Oregon if that helps.