Althea 01 [hibiscus syriacus]

MARCH 18, 2023.  I can’t believe I don’t have a photo of this one from last year. But maybe its poor condition made me skip that. Anyway, I repotted this one in the same “azalea” pot, but this time I used soil conditioner and pumice. We’ll see how that works out. I also didn’t cut it back or prune it much at all. I really like the profile/silhouette; I just hope it thrives.  I did find out they won’t bloom without a lot of sun, so I’ll keep it on the bench with the junipers and pines and see how it goes. UPDATE March 30. We had a late freeze ten days ago, and I didn’t get this one covered. I think it’s putting out a second round of new growth, but it might have a struggle.

August 5, 2022. OK. I must have done something wrong again. i think I used old soil/bonsai mix, but I really don’t remember. I know I used a lot of screened reused soil and added a commercial potting soil. At this point I wish I had used soil conditioner in addition to the old mix. Live and learn — again. Leaf growth has been limited and small, but blossoms have been full size. At least the humming birds like it. 🙂

March 9, 2022. The soil mix I tried last year didn’t work out as well as I hoped. Maybe the plastic pot had too many extra drain holes drilled into it, maybe the mix was wrong, perhaps it got too much sun, maybe the stars weren’t aligned right. So this year I put it in a deeper oval pot that once held an azalea. I did try the organic-rich soil again. If things go well, I’ll post a photo when it’s in bloom.

March 6, 2021. I repotted this a couple of weeks ago, mostly because I wanted to use the pot for something else. The Althea is now in a plastic pot planted in a mix with a lot of pine bark in it. I hope it holds moisture better than the mix I used last year. I’ll see how that works out.

August 16, 2020. I’ve been playing with this one for a while, so this page should have been started years ago. We’ve had them springing up all around the yard, so I tried to dig a couple once they reached a decent trunk size. Impossible! Roots went straight down and weren’t worth the trouble. Plus they probably wouldn’t have lived long in a pot.

So I got this one in its first year, planted it in the ground over a tile, and le voila! — four years later it’s a bonsai. At this time of year, and in full bloom, it needs watering twice a day. I still like it.

It’s in the John Cole pot I bought at his Creekside Nursery in Nashville last year. It’s too far off center, but that’s fixable next repot.

Photos