Deth

Last winter we brought our Hibiscus plant in the house for the winter to see if we could keep the same one for the next summer. We’d tried it the year before but the garage got into the low 20s unexpectedly and it died. We didn’t realize how much insulation had fallen out of the ceiling and had no heat on.

Last winter we had kept the current one inside the house but we don’t really having south facing windows that aren’t blocked by something so it got very little sun and in the spring it got none due to the sun angle changing and not having access to place the pot close enough to the window to be in the sun. It survived. The leaves became smaller and the foliage in general got much less dense and obviously it stopped flowering but it did grow and branch slowly.

Well then spring came and it warmed up outside so we took it back out and put it in the front yard where it would get some sun. With no leaves on the trees yet it got sun all day. The leaves all promptly lighted up and fell off. I did some googling and found they’re prone to getting sun burnt. It lost all of it’s foliage but kept tiny green spots which very very slowly expanded and formed buds. Soon they slowly opened into tiny leaves then it grew a few larger leaves. Once it had the bigger leaves it filled in pretty quickly. By late June it was filled out with dense leave and by July it was blooming. It bloomed more than it ever did last year with many more flowers at the same time.

Fast forward to fall and the first frost threats. When frost was a possibility we’d bring it into the house for the night and put it back outside for the daylight hours. it was still blooming a lot. Just for convenience I left it on the back patio then since that was right by the garage door. I noticed a branch that seemed to have lost all it’s leaves. I assumed I bumped it into the door way or my body carrying it in the house and damaged it. We kept noticing more areas like that but had no idea what was happening. It was still growing vigorously and blooming.

Finally One day while working out Molly noticed a squirrel on the edge of the pot eating the leaves and buds. Evident ally squirrels really like eating hibiscus plants, who knew? We never noticed them bothering with it before other than burying nuts or seeds in the pot. By that time most of the leaves were gone again and it was chilly enough to leave it in the garage. (got the heater working now and insulation fixed.) Over the past month or so it’s been very slowly recovering from the damn squirrel eating it. Lots of small leaves with new small buds. We’ll see what happens to it over the winter.