According to my garden notes, my hardy hibiscus (grown from seed via winter sowing) didn't show itself until 5/16/11. In view of the harsh winter, I'm not expecting to see new growth on my plant for a few more weeks since everything else has been between 3-6 weeks later than in prior growing seasons.

I had to move some Hibiscus a couple of weeks ago. When I dug them up, I could tell they were alive by the condition of the roots, but there was not a sprout even starting on any of the plants. I suspect, it's going to be June before they do anything.

Kevin

They love to sleep in - don't worry. They're among my latest emergers - often not appearing here in mid-MI until around the end of May. This year will prolly be later, given the unusually low soil temps this late in spring.

Al

They love to sleep in - don't worry. They're among my latest emergers - often not appearing here in mid-MI until around the end of May. This year will prolly be later, given the unusually low soil temps this late in spring.

Al

This thread is such an encouragement!

I only had one hardy hibiscus until last year. Last summer I picked up a few more, then some bargain ones. A few have just a couple sprouts starting to show, but many are showing nothing. Now I'll give them another couple weeks before I start worrying (or returning the guaranteed ones).

This post was edited by ruth_mi on Tue, May 20, 14 at 22:33

Just appeared in my Zone 7 garden this week.

Thanks for this thread!

I was ready to give up on mine and pull it out. But now I will wait for a few more weeks.

I have a Japanese Maple that I am waiting on also.

Diane

We have a "Lucy" standard that has been in our garden for 5 or 6 years. I no longer worry about it ie it has always returned to life showing leaves sometime in June.

BUT to make you less anxious just scratch a branch or two to likely reveal the life affirming colour green beneath the grey bark.

They showed up here about a weeek ago in my zone 5/6 garden.

Be patient. Hardy Hibiscus are one of the last to make their appearance. Many people are guilty of thinking their HH is dead when it actually isn't. It is just a slow starter. It's hard to predict with the cold & later winter temps, but I wouldn't be concerned at all for awhile. It may not start greening until June. :) Soil temperatures must be consistently 70F for them to start showing life in the spring. I've included a link to an article on overwintering your hardy hibiscus.

Here is a link that might be useful: Protecting Hardy Hibiscus in the Winter

Yet another voice adding to the call to be patient. Not at all uncommon in the zone 5 for them not to emerge until sometime in June. This is especially so if the plant is shaded part of the day by a tree or woods. Under such conditions, it take longer for the ground to warm up.

Thank you all! I was visiting an out of town nursery Monday that had a huge selection. I bought a replacement, or actually, fell for a replacement which seems more unusual than Luna Red (Midnight Marvel, that has maple leaf foliage and deep red flowers). Then decided when I got home that I might be jumping the gun. Maybe this would be a good time to move it, since nothing is showing above ground.

I am 100 miles west of you and just today saw the very beginning of one of mine. I plan to cut them back once they are all up though to delay the flowering. Last year, the Japanese Beetles completely devoured every single flower so I am hoping the beetles will be gone if I pinch them back so they flower a few weeks later.

Last year mine was planted too close to the air conditioner drain and all the flowers turned black as they were opening. The plant itself looked fine but I am assuming too much water was the problem. I moved it a couple feet.

Rhyse, I remember you had the really nice one with the oak type leaves you were trying to ID last year. I really liked that one a lot, more so than the flashy tropical looking types with the huge flowers.

Maybe this year we will both see some flowers.

The one with the Oak type leaves hasn't poked through yet and I lost lots of things because of our HORRIBLE winter. Most of the things I lost though were shrubs that were exposed to the months of sub zero temps. Everything else was covered with many feet of snow mulch.

We still haven't had more than one day at a time of temps in the 70's/80's so the ground is very slow in warming up.

May I but in with a question?
I know they are late to wake up, but would the same be true for one that was dug up early this spring and moved into a container? I had to move down the road and this was one I brought with me. I was thinking the soil temps would be a lot warmer than the ground, but still no sign of life from the base. This one was winter-sown last spring, planted out and was doing well, when a deer pulled it up and left it on the ground overnight....didn't eat it. I re-planted it and it resumed growing, but this was later in the summer. When I dug it back up this spring, there wasn't much root growth, but a scratch near the base was green. Oh how I hope it is still alive!

Vera

They can be really slow to wake up - I've had mine not start to show signs of life until end of May. Your plants should be fine - they're pretty tough, just late risers.

Its been downright hot here (mostly 80"s & 90's) since the first of the month with warm nights, we were warm (70's) all through April so my guess is they need very warm temps to start back up, or maybe warm nights. Moving mine didn't seem to affect it at all, it started coming up in early May. This is my first experience in growing one so I have no past years to compare with but our winter was colder for a period compared to other years so it wouldn't be an accurate indicator.

Our low temp in winter was 6 but it was not an extended period of extreme cold like in other areas although we were extremely dry which caused damage. In this part of the country inconsistent rain amounts, temps etc are the norm so we are used to unpredictability & "weirdness".

I have many plants that are off this year while others seem normal. The Russian sage is big and blooming now however Cenizio (Texas Sage) is still leafing out very slowly & some branches are still forming buds, usually its full of leaves in April & has bloomed by now. I had to cut many plants back to remove winter kill, some down to the ground. Salvia greggii are blooming but some died. Same with Salvia 'Lips'. Salvia's such as 'May Night' are long past blooming & going to seed. I've got Switchgrass up to my thighs & its putting out some panicles of bloom, which shouldn't happen until late summer while other grasses are still putting out new growth. Some hardy Lantana made it, others didn't.

I've seen several big hardy Pomegranite trees that are dead with suckers coming up around the area and many untrimmed shrubs that look the same in yards not maintained.

As a rule, I am not digging anything up until I know for sure, many others are doing the same. The plants that bloom in spring are well past that point now except a few are just coming around late but for the most part the summer bloomers have taken over. Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer in real time down here, spring is definitely just a nice memory as we hunker down for a long hot summer.

From what I have read on GW plants are off or just dead from the NE all the way down into Texas. Patience is the rule this year, everything seems off. I feel for some of the folks up north because it sounds like its going to be a much shorter than normal growing season for ya'll.

I expect the nursery's will be having a booming sales year.

I just saw new growth start on my 'Kopper King' Hibiscus today in zone 6a Massachusetts. Very happy about that!

One of mine just started sprouting a few days ago. The other no signs of life yet :(

Thanks again. A few weak little sprouts finally appeared on my Luna Red a couple of days ago. Thus far, I have not been impressed with this plant. After about 3 years, it has never achieved much height. I am going to move it out of its prime front yard real estate, and put either the Midnight Marvel (the one with maple leaf foliage and deep red flowers) there, or the Kopper King I also bought. Those two, though potted, have thick impressive stems and look very vigorous. The bed has a very young Japanese maple there.

Which one do you think might look best there? I actually bought the Midnight Marvel thinking the leaves and red flowers would look good with the maple, now I am wondering if the contrast would be better.

coming along fine

I just noticed a few, very small sprouts on mine today. I swear they weren't there a couple of days ago, but we had a couple inches of rain yesterday, so I bet that made the difference.

Kevin

Mine finally started sprouting on the 31st of May and growing very fast, probably two inches in two days! Glad I gave it some time!

My Japanese Maple did not bud and I think its a loss. So sad :(

Ryse that's what I do is cut mine back. Keeps it from becoming a monster and the beetles are long gone by then.

Also I do see life on my other one now :D I thought for sure it was a goner as it was a sad looking clearance plant.

This post was edited by lilsprout on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 13:22

My 'Summer Storm' in its third season just emerged a few days ago and is now growing rapidly despite the persistently cool temperatures this season.

I have 'Lord Baltimore' and it usually is one of the last perennials to emerge from its clump. This year it was right on schedule starting to emerge around Memorial Day. It has now about 4 stems and I have put the stakes in near each stem to keep them upright. I wasn't sure if it was going to come back due to the severe protracted cold winter we had, but it did!!
Doing happy dance here!

I've been following this thread closely and thinking about all of the different dates people are putting out here and their respective zones.

I have several, and the ones that I've had for awhile leafed out almost a month ago. But I planted two as seedlings last year and I haven't seen any sign of life in them yet. So I bought a replacement for one yesterday. I'm going back and forth with whether or not to dig out the ones that didn't come back yet and put the new one in.

All of mine are a good 6-8 inches tall right now. They grow like crazy once up.

All but ONE. I thought it was probably dead, so today I started to dig it out. Luckily, I was gentle with my digging. Almost immediately, I noticed a green bud on a stem an inch or so below the soil. It lives!! 100% success with mine and the coldest winter in a decade.

Kevin

Kevin

Still nothing on mine, I'm baffled. I'm zone 8 and it wasn't a bad winter, pretty normal. Somehow it just didn't make it?

Here is our 9 foot hibiscus standard "Lucy" as of today. It has just begun to leaf out this past week and it wont be for another week till it is fully leafed.