How to Care for Hibiscus Plants

Join Spring Hill's gardening expert as he discusses the elements of hibiscus care. You'll discover tips on planting and watering, fertilization, pruning and more in this video.

Hello everyone, welcome to step-by-step gardening, I'm Scott from Spring Hill Nurseries and today we're talking about hibiscus. Hibiscus is one of the most impressive shrubs you can grow in your garden. Technically a herbaceous perennial, it can grow anywhere from three foot to ten foot all, depending on the variety. A rose of Sharon resembles a tree whereas this Crimson Wonder looks more like a shrub. Now its very easy to plant your hibiscus and to take care of it, especially if you live in the south because hibiscus is a tropical plant. You can grow them in the north too. All you have to do is take some extra steps to take care of them, to make sure they make it through the winter. One of the best things about hibiscus is that it can tolerate a wide range of soil types. But if you can, try to plant it in a well-drained area. It'll do the best there, like this nice raised bed, that would be perfect. Water the plant, let it drain, and then water it again. To take care of it in the winter, all you have to do is mulch the roots really well and it will overwinter with no problem. Once your plant is blooming, there's not much you have to do to take care of it. You can give it some fertilizer during the growing season, and you definitely want to pinch some of these faded flowers just to keep your plant looking tidy. Then in the fall, when it'd done growing, you want to trim it back a bit, so that it has that nice shape next year, and that's it for hibiscus. And that's it for this episode of step-by-step gardening.