Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Indoor plants outdoors and a free hibiscus
I recently got a couple of hibiscus containers if I mentioned a certain radio station at a local garden center. Oh, they’re so pretty.
My point is that hibiscus are tropical plants so THEIR watering schedule is different than most of the other container plants I have outside, that I talked about yesterday.
They can actually dry out and stay that way for a few days! I’m going to move these beauties indoors when it gets cold. Hibiscus can be gorgeous houseplants. Click on the link for more information!
Right now, though, many of you may have put your indoor plants outdoors. They can get fresh air and abundant sunshine.
But what’s that process like moving them in and out. The hardest part is acclimation or getting our indoor plants used to the outdoors. If you have a 3 season porch or indoor room, the transition is easy. Light is higher here but out of direct sun that can damage leaves developed indoors in lower light. For my elephant ear, I put him in the shade and watered every other day or so (could have been 4 days!) until I started to see real growth, then gave him a little bit of sunshine to energize the plant. Then, shade because that’s what it prefers!
For any plants going out into even a partial day of full sun, go slow and treat the plant as if you were going out for a day in the sun… while you use sunscreen, think of shade as their screen!
Likewise when the plants need to come BACK indoors, they need to get used to that too. Don’t expect them to look fabulous at first. They’re as sad about the cold coming as you are! For any bulbs, ie the elephant ear, they go dormant. I literally set this guy down in the icky part of my basement and left him completely untouched. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked!
Back to hibiscus! They love bright light. So when you bring them back indoors, they must be in a southern or western window to get 5 hours minimum of direct sunlight. The only place that’s possible for me, may not be possible to place the plant. I may have to rearrange my small living room!