Home › Forums › Over the Fence › General Gardening

Need help for cold-damaged hibiscus

slmc's picture

Need help for cold-damaged hibiscus (post #19437)

slmc on Mon, 01/09/2012 - 14:24 (updated 01/16/12 - 01:42) 
in

The garden is in zone 8 Florida. A recent cold snap killed the leaves and buds on a small blooming hibiscus.  Should  branches be cut back now or wait until spring?

-A +A
KimmI's picture

cold damaged Hydrangea (post #19437, reply #1 of 2)

by KimmI in reply to slmc [original] on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 05:25

Maybe, maybe not. Many Hydranges are a bit cold sensitive and if frozen will loose leaves, but that cold may not have damaged the flowering buds so pruning off the damaged canes could remove the flowers you should be seeing next year. I would wai until next spring to see if those canes actually have been killed or just nipped a bit.

On my Hydrange macrophylla the canes are so frozen every winter I seldom see any blossoms unless the snow cover is early enough and lasts long enough to cover that shrub.

The sign of a good gardener is brown knees, not a green thumb.

slmc's picture

Thanks for replying (post #19437, reply #2 of 2)

by slmc in reply to KimmI [original] on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 12:13

I'll take your advice and wait until spring to see what happens.