In late August, I took a photo of the blooms on a tropical Hibiscus growing as a standard in my brother’s backyard by his patio.  He and his girlfriend planted it this year.  It has been growing beautifully all season.

• Standard:  For those of you who are not familiar with the term standard, it means a plant that has been trained into a tree-form shape.  I’m not sure why they call it a standard; seems like it should be called a tree-form plant.  A newbie would never use the word standard to search for information about how to grow a plant into a standard, which ends up looking like a topiary.  The plant sits as a beautiful round form on the top of a small tree.

At first, when his girlfriend brought it home, it wasn’t doing so hot in the pot.  And their apartment doesn’t get much sunlight. (I know, I lived there too before getting my own home years ago), so my Mom, who lives next door, suggested they plant it in the ground.  It took off gangbusters style immediately after her wonderful suggestion.  The leaves greened up, the stalk increased in size a bit, and the blooms repeated all season long.

I warned my brother his tropical Hibiscus plant will not survive our winter in the ground.  He chuckled, and responded with, “Oh yah it will.  I’m going to build a box around it.”  Knowing my brother and his determination, I decided not to argue the point.  I was just in one of those moods.  I thought, “Okay, little brother, you try that.” Then I continued on my way.  But before leaving, I took a couple photos of the blooms.

Well, low-and-behold, he called me last night.  Usually he calls me about his band’s gig dates, and I post it on Facebook for him.  (BTW, he is playing T-day Eve, I’ll be posting the info soon).  But this time, his call was to ask me, “How do I store my plant? It is still doing amazing,” he commented.

“Ah, you finally believe me?” I replied.  “Well…,” he admitted, he asked Dad.  (Dad, the farmer of 80 years of age, who has never grown a tropical in his life!)  At that point, my bro believed it wouldn’t survive when Dad replied, “I don’t think so.”

Yup – Dad is right.

For the tropical shrub or tree Hibiscus, these have to be taken indoors as a houseplant or can be stored in your basement to overwinter.  These plants, hardy in zones 10-11, can survive warmer zones, but here we have to take the steps to move it, or loose it – which he surely would have if he didn’t think twice.

Yet, I totally understand my brother’s and his girlfriend’s resistance to take it out of the ground because their plant performed so beautifully by their back porch all summer and still going strong because we have had a warm October.  But very soon it will be too cold thus it is time before it is too late.

As for the huge blooms – they keep going as long as it is warm out – and this went into the early fall for us this year in Connecticut.  As my brother noted, it is still thriving as of mid- October.

I also appreciate the foliage of tropical Hibiscus plants.  Dark green, shiny and fresh looking.  Something I admire about certain plants is “fresh” looking foliage.

By the way, people often get confused about the Hibiscus types out there.  Often I have to tell plant newbies there are many types: tropical, perennial, and shrub.  Most folks recognize the huge flowers, but they don’t realize the tropical types won’t survive our climate, like the the perennial Hibiscus would which can look very similar.  Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is tropical, known as Rose-of-China (like my brother’s type), but there are many others and lots of cultivars and similar species.  Blooms come in almost every color too.  Some people are also familiar with the Rose-of-Sharon deciduous flowering shrub, which is hardy for us to zone 5; latin name of Hibiscus syriacus.  So you can see the confusion for one that has seen these large blooms for the first time, and wants one to last.

…My advice to my brother continued:

“You are going to have to dig it up with the root ball or most of the roots with some soil, pot it up on a nice container with potting soil, not all ground dirt, and move it inside.  Since you don’t have lots of sun in your apartment, you can take it down to the basement.  Select a cool, dark place.  It can be kept on the dry side, do not water it too much but check for insects a few weeks after moving it.  Don’t let it competely dry out to rock hard.  You don’t want it to die, you are putting it to sleep for the winter.  It will hang on there if you watch it.” 

Quiet on the phone, I could tell he was listening.

I continued.  “Oh, next year, when you take it back outside, don’t put it in full sun immediately.  You will have to transition it, otherwise, the leaves will bleach.  You will have to wait for our first warm-up to move it from the basement, maybe a few days by a window, and then outside into shade before full on sun.” 

He already knew that, he replied.

Then he gave me his next question, “Hey, you know those elephant ears you gave Nancy?  Well, she didn’t plant them this year.  Will they be okay next year?”