Huzzah!  Our road to getting a three month bonus on this year's growing season is off to a good start.  These figs were moved from covered dormancy to the basement under a 400w hps lamp with a ventilation system hanging from the ceiling by zipties (yikes!) on January 1st.

The proverbial pre-pre-fruits of our labor: strong green growth!


Meanwhile it is 13 degrees outside right now here in National Park, NJ, with a half-slush/half-snow sheet of gross.  Yuck.  This tangerine Hibiscus is doing the best it can in the basement but makes me sad nonetheless.  :-(

Here's what it looked like in July and before I had a digital camera:


Spring cannot come fast enough!

spring can not come fast enough.. how true. until few says ago, we had wonderful spring weather. for next few days it's dipping down to 20 and below.. my trees in the garage has broken bud already. hope they don't freeze and fall off :)

Make sure you maintain higher humidity than in the rest of your house. Spider mites will thrive if it is too dry, especially on that hibiscus. I mist the plants many times per day. And if I see any pests, out comes the Neem spray. My citrus are like my canaries in the coal mine. They are always the first to be munched upon.

I welcome any bugs that want to take their chances in my house.  ;-)

Greg i noticed your Hibiscus plant . Some years back i purchased a hybrid developed by some plant guru for cold area's i found on sale at a nursery in different colors that suppose to be cold hardy .
I gave it a shot and still have it inground , each season i cut the canes down to ground level and put a plastic pot on top and it comes back each season. Went back several years in a row but never saw them again as i wanted to get a different color.

My neighbor admires it so i tried to dig up a piece for him but could not cause it goes down and down and down . He tried the seeds from it but they failed him.
Can show a picture if you like .

Dieseler I'd love to see a picture.  Hibiscus are crazy easy to clone.  A pot of perlite/dirt, a dome, and rooting gel, bam: done.  Here's a clone I took from a local hibiscus last summer in Columbus.

Here it is , i tie to fence to keep it upright as it grows near 5 feet in the season with many blooms.

Hibiscus syriacus. national flower of korea. and korea is cold as hell during the winter, but this was choosen because it keeps on coming back after each winter.

That's a beautiful hibiscus Martin.  Wanna swap cuttings in the spring?

Greg for you i can send some dry pods with seeds later next season if you like no cuttings in return thanks.

That would be great.  No one ever wants to trade hibiscus!  That pink one I noticed growing in someone's yard in Columbus.  One day I took two cuttings of my tangerine hibiscus and walked over there to offer him a trade.  He seemed terrified that I was on his doorstep--which I guess is a reasonable response when a 6'6" 300 pound man is on your doorstep with a flower pot, scissors, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol--and just said, "take whatever you want, I don't want that (gesturing to my offering)" then closed the door and watched me from his window.  Weird.

LOL
This coming season i'll get back to you .