I mostly grow hardy hibiscus in full sun, or at least full sun for most of the day. Some of mine get full sun all day long. A few others get sun from sunup until about 3 p.m. There are a couple on the west side of the house that don't get direct sunlight until noon and then they only have direct sun for an hour or two and dappled shade thereafter. All of them bloom.

What kind of soil are they planted in? Do you give them supplemental water or do they have to get by on rainfall? Usually, most hardy hibiscus bloom well as they really are pretty tough plants. What kind of fertilizer are you using? Do you know its N-P-K ratio?

Dawn

Thanks okie dawn. By your answer, I now think the hibiscus are planted in a good place. I went out to check the fertiizer I used. It is TLC Tree, Shrub, & Landscape Food. It is 12-6-8 plus various minerals.

I just saw a grasshopper on one of the plants. Maybe the Sevin I used wasn't effective. I have some Bayer insect killer. I will try that later today.

It is interesting that the rose of sharon is no more than 10-12 feet away and is flowering fine.

There are roses and four o'clocks and some other perenials in the area that are doing fine. I think I have watered sufficiently. The soil is good. I don't know what the ph is. I have put cedar mulch around the hibiscus and rose of sharon. Perhaps pine mulch would have been better.

I heard a gardener on MPR say not to use the mulch purchased at the big bag stores such as Lowe's which is where I have purchased mine. What is your suggestion regarding mulch. I live about an hour from TLC or Marcum's nurserys in OKC so it is not convenient to buy my mulch there.

I "make my own" mulch. Yesterday I made three 30 gallon barrels full of shredded up English Ivy. I hate that stuff, but it comes over the fence from the neighbors.

I'll see about posting a picture of my hibiscus later today, or tomorrow morning.

It's not mulched much. Almost full sun, and watered often, unless it rains.

Moni

Moni
I hope you watch that ivy. It doesn't take much for the stuff to take root. It literally took over a neighbors house where I used to live, and even started growing into the roof. Evil stuff. That much mulch you salvaged would be nice tho if you had it under control :)

Barbara

Onemoreplant,

Did they say why you shouldn't buy bagged mulch? I haven't heard that one before.

I have heard that a certain big box store is selling some bagged manure that is said to be contaminated with a herbicide that is killing plants in beds where the manure has been used, although I don't know if that is a widespread problem or something happening just in one or two regions.

I try to make my own mulch and compost, but I always end up buying some because I never have enough. It is getting harder and harder to 'trust' purchased products, though, so it is always safer to make your own. If you have a chipper/shredder, you can shred tree trimings or you can use a leaf vac/shredder to turn your autumn leaves into mulch. Or, you can rake up the leaves in a pile and run over them with a lawn mower with a grass catcher attached and then empty the leaves from the grass catcher onto the beds to use as mulch. Or, you can use grass clippings. I use all of the above as mulch.

Dawn

Here is my hibiscus, but alas, today there are no open blooms. :(

{{gwi:1123918}}

I have grown Southern Bell hibiscus for 35 plus years at three different houses. I always had them planted in a flower bed and never mulched, but did have to water a lot.

My rose of sharon got too messy from all the dropped peddles. The southern bell dropped a lot of peddles also, but because ot their growing habit they hid the dropped peddles.

The hardy hibiscus was the most hardy of them all but the flowers did not get as large and did not open up large and flat.

The Chinese hibiscus was by far the prettiest but was too much trouble because they had to be dug up each year and taken inside.

I only grow southern bell now, altho not quite as hardy as the hardy hibiscus, I prefer the 8 to 11 inch flat flowers.

Every thing I grew was in full sun except some of the rose of sharon only got sun till about noon, every thing grew well, but water was a must on all except the rose of sharon and hardy hibiscus.

Larry

Thanks everyone for the hibiscus input.

Okiedawn: the gardener on NPR did say not to use the wood mulch at the big box stores. I would think that TLC or Marcum's mulch would be acceptable but probably more expensive than Lowes, Home Depot or Wal-mart. I am pretty sure he is not an Oklahoma gardener.

I rarely hear his program. I just happened to be in my car on Friday morning and he came on if you want to check him out. He was recommending using card board but I didn't hear what he said to use on top of the card board. I probably got in heavy OKC traffic and "tuned" him out.

I do use a lot of leaves around my crepe myrtles. I don't think they are very attractive. I plan to check with TLC and get their recommendation about mulch. Their advise seems to be creditable.

You might want to change your fertilizer. What you're using has twice as much nitrogen as phosphorus. Nitrogen contributes to dark green color and foliage growth. Phosphorus encourages flowering and root growth. Also, the more sun it gets the better it will bloom.

I had four of them in the backyard of my house when I bought it two years ago. None of them get as much sun as I'm sure they would like but a couple get more than the other two. Mine do not bloom as well as my neighbor's, but hers is pretty much in full sun all day. Two of mine are in more shade than sun, and last year both of them barely bloomed at all.

This past spring I dug up one of my two that were in shade and transplanted it to the front of the house where it's in sun from just shortly after sunrise until 2 or 3 pm, and not only has it bloomed much better, it's also grown much larger than it did in the back last year. So much larger that I'm thinking I should dig it up again next spring and thin it out a little.

If yours are in more shade than sun then you should consider moving it somewhere with more sun, if possible. They are really easy to move, as I found out last April, providing you do so while the plants are still dormant.

Here's a picture of the transplanted one taken a little over a month ago. It's much taller now and crowding the rose (left in the picture). Last year it barely got half the size in this picture.

Debra