Struggling Potted Hibiscus Care

We have another question, ‘my wife was given a potted hibiscus tree and the flowers are beautiful, but soon after we got it we noticed leaves starting to turn yellow, and we’ve lost probably half of the leaves. I can’t figure out, are we giving it too much water or not enough water? But we’re still getting flowers but about half of the leaves are gone. We put it in a bigger pot with drain holes in the bottom so the roots could grow.’

That is always a watering issue, and I’m going to say it’s probably not enough. Especially with this heat and that kind of thing, they can really drink up a lot of water so you definitely want to make sure you just give it a really good drink and make sure that water is coming out the bottom of the pot. Then just let it dry out in between watering, but at this time of year you’re probably going to be watering it once a day.

It could have been a stress issue from repotting too, it does have a little bit more room to grow. Definitely want to check it every day for water, you may not have to water it every day, just depending on how much extra soil is in there, but just give it a check. You probably still will be watering it every day, but it was probably a stress thing. It should push out new growth and be just fine, but that’s very common with hibiscus.

They are very heavy feeders, fertilizing it a lot would really help. A bloom booster or even just like an all-purpose water-soluble fertilizer when you water, as long as you’re following the instructions you can fertilize every time you water. More is not better, following the instructions on the package always. More frequently is better, but more fertilizer all at once is not a good thing.

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