Hi all,

Posting here because this is my second and possibly last attempt at trying to root my hibiscus.
I have a hibiscus I bought from pike nursery (Atlanta). It's a red Monrovia brand. Blooms a lot, grows bigger every year and has almost purple branches when they are young, thicker green to brown stem as i go more toward the ground.
I moved recently and really wanted to take cuttings from the hibiscus before I lose access to my previous house.
I have tried rooting in soil once but I might not have watered it enough so it dried out.
I tried it again with about 6 clippings. I put all of them in water initially. I followed a video online, 6-8 inches of clippings with 2-4 leaves. Tried to get the most mature stems I could without going too close to the ground. But after 2 days I saw that the younger leaves started to dry and fall off. The mature ones have started to turn yellow. It also says online that they don't like being over-watered, so I took 2 of them out and put them in a potting soil+peat moss mix. I added rooting hormone to both stems.
I have access to the house for 8 more days, so any advice on getting my cuttings would be great! I can get more cuttings in a few days if you have better advice on how to get new ones.
I have added pictures of the plant and also my attempt at rooting the clippings.

Prafullashahi, This appears to be the cranberry one? Do you have a name for yours?
I would fine a one gallon pot, fill it with good soil and take it to the plant. Find the primary
stalks and then locate the secondary side shoot off the main stalk. Cut as close to the
main shoot as you can and then remove the leaves but the top ones. Stick it directly into
the soil of the one gallon pot. I think you should be able to get at least 12 cutting in the
pot. Water and put a saucer under the pot. You want the soil moist. Keep me posted
how it goes. The last cup photo looks like it could root for you. If it's the cranberry one,
I have that one and will take cuttings here. I have seeds from the Luna Red and the
Luna white with red center if you are interested.

Thanks for the reply!
I don't remember the name for this one, but I know that it was a monrovia brand that I got from Pike nursery. It gets almost 7inch wide flowers and really fills out with flowers and grows bigger each year.

It seems to have many 'main' shoots. I assume by main shoot, you mean the stem that seems to rise directly from the ground. It doesn't have one main stem coming from the ground, rather 4-5 big stems that seem to come directly from the ground. The shoots will be really big, if i cut the stem right where it branches from the main stem and keep it intact all the way to the top.. I feel it would be about 2 ft.. will the plant survive if I keep the stem that long?
Also, what kind of soil should I use? organic peat moss, spagnum (miracle-gro) peat moss, potting soil, perlite?
Can I use rooting hormone?

prafullashahi, Are the new owners willing to allow you to take the whole plant? Can you dig it up and move it?
If not that is why I recommended the side shoots off the main stalk. They would root the best in my opinion.
I don't use the rooting hormone. I just cut and put directly into the soil. When talking about soil, I do not use
any of the ones with miracle-gro in it. An all around organic potting soil should work best. You could use the
main stalk, but if you do strip it but leave the top leaves. Do try to use also the side shoots and try to root them.
I only recommend doing tip cuttings if you have a greenhouse with proper lights.



I keep a 5 gallon pot of dirt by my back door all year around and it I come across a broken
branch I will strip and recut to just put it into the pot. These will stay there for a year to make
sure they are well rooted. We have several varieties of Perennial Hibiscus which if a great
fall color in the yard. I also have some special ones growing in the greenhouse under lights.

I have one that blooms pretty deep red.. unfortunately i didn't find them being sold anywhere else I would have bought them
If you have red ones I'd love to take them.. if not, the ones in the picture also look pretty good.. my lawn already has a lot of pink flowering azaleas, so wanted to throw in some red colors..
I could take the whole plant off if I wanted to, the new owners don't have the house yet.. but the plant takes root really deep (the roots were about 1 ft deep when the plant was under 1 ft tall, not sure how deep/wide the roots are now and if it will die if the roots break) so I wasn't sure if I would be able to take it out without killing it.. i only have a showel..

prafullashahi, I just removed a 2 year old plant and shipped it to the east coast for my cousin that admired the 5 foot
plants we have. I used a fork to lift it out slowly and found that the roots were close to the surface. I would take the
shovel to the outer edge of the plant and dig around the plant. Slowly lift it out of the dirt if you think they wouldn't
mind you removing it.

Today I stripped the H. Plum Crazy and H. Summerific Berry Awesome so that they are ready to take cuttings and
be put away for the winter. I took a dozen cutting of each. Both of these have the bronze color leafs.



I found a couple seedpods on our H. Luna Red so it should be a couple weeks before they brown and will
be ready.

I think i might wait and see if my cuttings take root, which seems highly unlikely at this point, considering they've all lost their leaves by now.. If not, I'll wait until summer to get another one from pike nurseries if they have the same variety..
I can try taking more cuttings before end of week.. do you recommend taking cuttings from younger purple branches, or medium size green branches? I can't take the ones that look brown because i think that's just the main stem and i can't cut it i think..
more questions:
- Do I need to scrape the bottom of the stem before putting it in soil?
- How long stems? i see yours look like 8-10 inches
- should the leaves look very young, or full size? My hibiscus also seems to be suffering from some pest because most bigger leaves now have holes in them.

Btw your H.Luna red definitely looks similar to the color I want.. is it a hardy/perennial variety?
Also from what I have heard growing hibiscus from seed could result in a different color from its parent, no? Is there a reason you didn't take cuttings, and used seeds for that instead?

So sorry for the delay, long day in the garden. I have my own hybrid that I took cuttings today from and
I tried to take a larger stem. I just make a fresh cut under a leaf node area and stick it right in the soil.
This time I did 2 leaf nodes deep, then water. I only took about 8 inches high on this and we will see
if they root by spring. When I cut back I leave at least one leaf nod high from the soil. So you have
all the rest to play with.

Just make a fresh cut and put a hole in the dirt, sink your cutting, simple. 8 to 10 inches are the best, I do
smaller cuttings in the greenhouse up under lights. But for a beginner I would stick with 8 to 10 inches. The
side shoots are younger than the main stalks and I find they root better. They add a great fall color when the yard
is dwindling.

I have two H. Luna reds and the one that is away from the larger one had one seedpod that was ready so I harvested it today. How many seeds would you like? This one should be a match to it's mom, red.

I do cuttings for folks and most folks don't want to wait a for cuttings to root or seeds. They want you to dig up what
is in your yard so they can plant it in theirs. So every year I take and dump these seeds in a special spot and allow them to grow. You need to plant them now for them to sprout in the spring. Then in the spring I will have plants to sell. Folks don't understand you need to start with a smaller plant so you can train them. I had a guy stop and he wanted a 6 foot bananas, but try to tell him that it won't make it over the winter months if done now. I told him to try the 4 footer and if he does good I'll dig up a larger root ball in the spring.

All I need is an address to send the seeds. (Click on my name to send me a message.)

@prafullashahi digging the plant up before you put the house up for sale would have been much easier with less frustration even if it meant buying a garden fork. Good luck with your cuttings.