947 views
0 Comments

I purchased our hibiscus from you this summer. It is still blooming. I have been bringing in and out of garage for a few weeks. Should we now put in basement and do we prune back? water?How much light?

“I purchased our hibiscus from you this summer. It is still blooming. I have been bringing in and out of garage for a few weeks. Should we now put in basement and do we prune back? water?How much light?” Yes, it is time for your tropical hibiscus to come inside for the winter. Rather than sending it to the basement for the winter, it would be better to find it as bright a window as you can find for it even if it is in a very cool room. I’d prune it back about 25%. No matter how bright the window, your hibiscus is going to get way less light that it does outside in summer. Water it very sparingly and don’t feed it at all. It will lose leaves and won’t flower much if at all. It will go into a semi dormant stage and will require little care other than very light watering. Sometime in March, it will push out some new growth in response to the lengthening days. You can respond to that with a little extra watering and very light feeding (1/4 strength food like Jack’s Classic or Miracle-Gro) every 4th or 5th watering. As it grows new leaves you can gradually increase the water but never so much that the soil stays moist for more than a few days. In late May, it should be warm enough to put it back outside. At first it will want to go in a shady area as it gets used to increased sunlight. Let it spend a week in a shady area then a week in a brighter area and so on until it is back in the sunny spot where it wants to spend the summer.

Get a quote

If you want to get a free consultation without any obligations, fill in the form below and we'll get in touch with you.