A Time to Garden – Hardy Hibiscus

It’s the time of year when the hibiscuses are sporting their huge blossoms of bright colors.

Hibiscus, also known as rose mallow and rose of Sharon, is an herbaceous annual or perennial, a deciduous shrub or small tree. It’s in the plantae kingdom, order of malvales and genus hibiscus. The species hibiscus moscheutos is a cold-hardy cultivar. Hibiscus is used in teas, dried edibles and can be candied for desserts or garnishes.

My first experience with hibiscus was years ago when I bought a beautiful potted plant at Home Depot. I was amazed by the size of the flower. Unfortunately, that was also when I believed places sold only plants that would grow in New Hampshire – unless they were annuals. Needless to say, my hibiscus didn’t last long. I was then told hibiscus are tropical plants.

After I moved to Bradford from the Seacoast, I’d periodically drive by a house in Hillsborough in late August. She had rows of tall hibiscus growing along the driveway and garden along the road. I knew she couldn’t be digging them up to bring inside for the winter. There were too many. How was she getting hibiscus to survive?

I got my answer after I’d moved to Hillsborough in 2015. The following spring, I made a stop at Agway as I was creating more gardens. Agway had hibiscus plants for sale! Melissa told me these were perennial hardy hibiscus and would survive winters of zone 4 hardiness. I was excited and throughout the next couple weeks, I bought four in different colors. (I loved them so much I kept going back for more.)

I later learned that tropical hibiscus has single or double blooms with green, glossy leaves. Hardy hibiscus has single blooms and heart-shaped (what I call fingered) leaves of a duller green (the leaves on one of mine are reddish).

What’s eye-catching about hibiscus is the size of the blossoms and how tall they grow (up to 5 feet). Flowers can be 6 inches or more in diameter (the bigger 10 to 12-inch blooms are called dinner plate hibiscus), with colors ranging from yellow, peach, purple, shades of red and there’s now a blue one called Bluebird Hardy Hibiscus. (Oh, I want one of these!) The flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds and bloom late July and August. The flowers only last one or two days but more come.

Planting: Make sure your purchase is a hardy variety. Choose a full-sun location with well-drained, rich soil. They also do well near ditches and swamps. Dig a hole only as deep as the root ball and two to three times as wide. Mix the soil removed from the hole with a small amount of compost if the soil is in poor condition. Good soil doesn’t need to be amended.

Carefully remove the plant from its pot and set it in the hole. Fill the hole halfway with soil, then water well. Allow the water to settle which eliminates air pockets. Fill the rest of the hole and water thoroughly. Add mulch.

Care: Frequent watering is required in the first two months after planting. Never let the soil dry out completely. Once established, water deeply when the top few inches of soil feels dry. Hibiscus requires a large amount of water while blooming; constantly moist, not wet. Water daily in warm weather soaking completely through the root zone. However, cut back on watering once the weather cools; too much water can kill it. Stake long stems if needed.

Organic fertilizer with plenty of phosphorus encourages blooms. Use a high potassium fertilizer in the summer, a diluted liquid fertilizer one a week, a slow release fertilizer once a month or add a high potassium compost to the soil. (As I often find, research can be contradictory as one site said to feed twice a month during the growing season – discover what works best for your plants.)

Check plants periodically for pests: aphids, white flies, mealybugs and Japanese beetles. Control pests with a horticultural oil or insecticidal soap. (I’ve purchased a variety of repellents along with Dawn dish detergent which I’ve heard also works, but I’m afraid to use anything that might harm bees and butterflies.) Also watch out for rust fungus, which also affects hollyhocks and other mallow plants.

Pruning: Prune as necessary to control plant size. Cut back errant branches to just above a side shoot. Cut the entire shrub up to half its height after the first flush of blooms fade. This will encourage more bud formation and maintain the size of the shrub. You can also just trim off individual spent flowers to encourage further flowering. Keeping plants deadheaded makes the gardens look tidy and prevents the seeds from sowing unless seedlings are wanted.

If left alone, hardy hibiscus may self-sow and become weedy. These seedlings will not necessarily be the same color as the parents. However, they can be transplanted and moved throughout the garden.

Preparing for winter: Cut back dead stems to near ground level in the fall after a frost. The stems usually die back to the ground. Mulch over the root zone to provide protection and insulation for the roots. The roots survive and the hibiscus quickly grows new stems in spring.

For the new season: Winter-damaged and dead stems may attract pests or disease so prune off any dead stems in late winter/early spring. Hibiscus is a slow growing plant often not showing signs of life until June, well after other plants. Pinch the shoots of young plants in early summer to encourage branching and more flower stalks to form.

Tip: They also do well in containers but do not transplant well.

It sounds like a lot of care, but it isn’t bad at all and the rewards are worth it. The hardy hibiscus are such bright spots of color when other summer flowers are starting to fade.

Being Creative with Flower Gardens

Another week went by and I was still sore from my fall. However, I was determined to get outside. I’m probably not giving myself enough time to fully heal, but I just can’t sit still all the time. I have to get out and do things … besides deadheading.

Sometimes my stints outside aren’t much. I might move a couple stones, set a paving stone for a step into the garden, or work a little at creating more of a tier in the north side lily garden.  I get new ideas on how I can enhance the yard.

Enhanced garden

One day I commented to my neighbor Andy how I wanted to build a retaining wall where the echinacea and rudbeckia are on the lowest part of the north side. I wasn’t sure how to fill the space between the two big boulders where water, soil, and mulch run off into the gully. The few retaining wall bricks I had didn’t quite fit the space.

A little while later he called me to come out. Oh, my God! He made it look amazing, and he filled it in with smaller rocks like the boulder garden out front. He even fixed up the two-lily garden by the walkway.

The stump garden and wet area cleared.
This little bit of digging and laying in dirt was all my body allowed.

On the last blog, I mentioned him using the string trimmer to clear weeds and messy growth along the edge of my property. I decided to make a new garden on the front side of the now clear stumps leaving the pretty tall ferns. The back side turns into mini pond when we get heavy rains. 

The area up to the stumps was mossy with roots which made it hard to dig. Stabbing straight down with the shovel to break ground and roots aggravated my sore ribs, but I pushed on to finish the area. I placed stones in a slight crescent shape as a suggestion for the new border. I wanted to make a slightly bigger area

The question was how to build a retaining wall in the back so this new garden can be leveled. (My intent is to level garden areas because it’s hard for me to work on slopes.) I mentioned to Andy about maybe cutting down the leftover stockade fence section to create a picket fence look in the back. He thought that was a great idea.

A quirky retaining wall with found items and more dirt to level.

He came back the next day after thinking it over. He didn’t think the stockade fence pieces would be sturdy enough. While I was working inside, he found leftover posts from the old deck and logs left behind when a couple of trees were cut down. He laid the posts horizontally to create a wall on one end, and at the other end, he stood the logs up vertically. He filled in the garden with soil, then called me to come out.

Wow, I was surprised! While the picket fence look would have been nice, what I like about this is that it’s quirky, like me. (Someone later said my gardens are whimsical.) What shows of the old wooden posts, I’ll paint purple to further enhance the quirky-whimsicalness. (Next year I’ll plan something for the top of the stumps … some kind of décor or potted plants.)

I’m so impressed by this year’s progress in the gardens and being able to pump water from the brook has kept everything green and lush.

Getting Help Creating Beauty

After taking a header on the deck last Friday, I’ve been moving very gingerly. I’m surprised I could still walk. I’m bruised and achy down my entire right side. For the next few days, I did minimal garden work.

But by Tuesday, I had to get outside, first deadheading the lilies, then moving a couple of stones from the rock pile to the hibiscus border. I set two bricks as steppingstones to access the crabapple for pruning.

On my next stint outdoors (I do a little work at a time), I pulled sample paint cans from cupboards above the broom closet to play around with new deck color. I added two different colors to the areas on the porch and deck where I’d put the first color Wednesday. Oh, I’m having such a dilemma choosing. 

Andy and his new roomie, Justin, came over. Justin began moving the rock pile and placing the small stones in the lower tier of the boulder garden. I asked Andy to take out the Russian olive on the left side of the driveway. It’s not a pretty shrub and it hides the beautiful ornamental grass which I never get a chance to see. I also asked him to clean up the growth around the stumps.

He went over and above. Next thing I knew, he not only had taken down the growth with the string trimmer, he brought over his lawn mower and cut all the little scrub brushy stuff even into the dried-up road water runoff pond and along the edge of the property. Then he took the string trimmer and cleaned off the big boulders. 

Leo says the bigger one is a perfect look-out resting place.

Meanwhile, I decided to paint the letters on a garden sign Don and Carol gave me years ago. The hanger hooks rusted and broke, but the sign is still nice. However, it was just a dull greenish-gray. Last year I spray painted the whole thing yellow intending to paint the letters, leaves, and flowers other colors. I never got around to it.

My work bench was messy with tools, projects to work on, and things to put away which I didn’t get to putting up this year. I cleared a small area and started painting the letters of the sign with Benjamin Moore majestic purple. It didn’t take long for my back and neck to start aching as I hunched over the letters to see into the grooves and get lines straight. I didn’t give up, though, and pushed through.

I swear it took me an hour to paint “A GARDEN sings songs of Nature’s SPLENDOR” with a tiny art brush. (The capital letters are how they are on the sign.) By then, my feet were screaming, too, especially as I was still recovering from the fall a few days prior. Enough done for the day.

I love my gardens and yard. It IS all about: “Creating Beauty for Myself, Creates Beauty for Others.”