Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me. I bought this hibiscus plants a few weeks ago and now it seems to be wilting. All of leaves are pointed downward and some of them are yellow. I have been watering it more and I add Miracle Grow every week. It sits in my living room with a lot of sunlight. Can anyone give a helpful suggestion? Thanks
Try less watering and more sun. Leaves will wilt and turn yellow from too much water. Cut back on the feeding for a while too. It is already under stress and increased feeding won't help it. Hibiscus being a tropical plant needs as much sun as it can get. If you can put it outside for at least 6 hours of sun a day it will be happier too.
Going into the colder months, it is important to give it a bit of a 'rest' period...keep it in sunlight for sure but make sure you don't over water it and you can give it a break from fertilizer etc during this time too. hope this helps!
Hi everyone, thanks for the suggestions. I have been giving it more water because a few people told me to give it more water...I will happily pull back on the watering and Miracle Grow. I left it outside for 2 days straight with lots of sunlight and it still looked wilted. Well, I think I need to stop watering it so much and leave it outside when it's nice...what do you think? Any other ideas would be helpful! New Gardener
It is a definite possibility that it is being over watered...just keep it watered enough so it doesn't dry out.
Overwatering is a bigger plant killer than underwatering. Most people see wilted, yellow leaves and automatically think it is too dry. That's when you stick your finger into the soil as far as it will go to see how wet the soil is below the surface. Is it in a pot with drainage holes? If not, then you should repot it in dry soil or it will never dry out and the roots will rot. If it does have drainage holes make sure it isn't standing in water between waterings until it has recovered. Let it dry out almost completely before watering again, then let the top inch or so of the soil dry out between waterings. If it gets too dry the leaves will droop but pick back up when watered. Actually repotting in dry soil might be the best thing to do now anyway. Leave it out in direct sun as many days as possible, it will take a few days for it to come back from too much water/too little sun. It will probably loose some of the leaves but that can't be helped. Is it a hardy or tropical hibiscus? The tropical variety has shiny leaves, the hardy does not. Mine are the hardy variety and will do okay outside in temps above freezing. They are perennial here so they go dormant for the winter. If it is tropical then you will need to bring it inside when the temps go under about 60 at night. Even tho it will be heading into dormancy soon, it still needs as much sun as you can give it during the process.
Hi all, Thanks for all of the posts. It's in a pot with a dish underneath it. It's not looking too good right now...the leaves are really wilted and quite a few of them are yellow. so, you think I should repot it another pot? I can do that.
