"paghat" wrote in message
news
"Vox Humana" wrote in message
. ..

BTW, they begin blooming when
extremely small, and I had many blossoms the first year after I planted
them.

I have one that I planted about 4 years ago. It was only a few inches
high,
and bloomed the second year. It seeds itself easily and now I have
several
that I need to remove. The problem I am experiencing is that the
flowers
are falling off just before they open. The entire stem breaks off where
it
meets the branch. I don't see any insects or obvious disease.

When stressed, some shrubs, & hibiscuses are particularly susceptible to
this, will produce a big dose of the chemical hormone ethylene which
causes buds to fall loose from the branches in about two days. It's a
self-preservation technique so a shrub can concentrate on staying alive
instead of flowering & fruiting. This typically happens with
transplanting, or with lack of sufficient watering, over-watering,
over-fertilizing, exposure to pollution in the air or from garden
chemicals, lack of beneficial fungal microorganisms in the soil, or
fighting off a harmful root fungus or grubs amidst the roots, or from
being a new planting unused to its new conditions.

It's hard to say what the "fix" would be since so many factors can be
stress causing; you have to figure out the stressing factor.

Non-organic growers use an ethylene-suppressant & other nasty chemicals to
keep shrubs smart-looking for the longest possible length of time for
potted sales of shrubs in bloom. It's one of many nasty tricks done to
plants hence to customers who'll see the specimen decline rapidly & blame
their own lack of a green thumb, when in reality the shrub had just been
in a state of artificial preservation long enough to get the sale before
its weeks of stress getting to market show effect.

Great information. I would guess that it may be too much water. I haven't
used any fertilizer but I have watered and it has gone from too dry to too
wet.