Hello everyone! First time posting in the Hibiscus thread.

I live in southwestern Ontario, Canada, and have been growing multiple hibiscus plants outside. Up to this point, I haven't known what kind they are. I think they're tropicals, but I was hoping I could get a confirmation. With cooler weather beginning it's approach, I'm debating whether they need to come inside for the winter, or can be kept outdoors and protected from the cold (mulch and burlap maybe?)

They're all kept in pots. Most of them are in larger planters made from thick plastic. Some are in bamboo planters. All have drainage.

Here's the first kind. This is just one of them, but there's actually three that look just like this in different planters:


A smaller white one. This one doesn't like to bloom nearly as often as the others for whatever reason. Maybe simply due to being smaller.


And the red ones. I think there's two varieties living in this planter together, as each side of the pot gets slightly different flowers. I thought they were the same when I put them in there, but oh well! They've been happy in there. First two pictures are from before they were potted. The potted pictures I have only show the blooms.




Are these tropicals or hardys?
And what do I need to know as far as winter care? I got these at the beginning of the year, so haven't had them through a winter yet.

Thank you for any assistance!

I'm definitely not an expert on hibiscus, but I think I read that dark green shiny leaves means they're tropical hibiscus. I can say for sure that the Orange one is tropical.

They are all tropical.

You have some gorgeous plants!

I agree. Rose of Sharon (hibiscus syriacus) blooms do not look like those and the other hardy ones (hibiscus moscheutos) have dinner sized plates for flowers. Yours are tropicals so continue doing winter protection. They look very nice.

Thanks everyone!

Ill probably bring them inside for winter then. Completely eliminate any risk of frost.

They absolutely WILL NOT survive your winter. Any temps below 32F are severely damaging and below 25F are completely fatal. Enjoy them outside in the summer and then bring them in and give them as much light as you possibly can during the winter.

In my area, my hibiscus don't like it below about 50 degrees. Mine go into a greenhouse heated to about 55 just to keep them happy.

Oh yeah, my temperatures sometimes drop far below that. They'll definitely come inside!

It's already started cooling down over the last week. Night time temperatures were hitting 50s and 60s.

I brought them inside a couple weeks ago, as it started getting quite chilly outside at night.
I put them in a sunny stairway. They're all still happily blooming away.

Definitely makes my stairway more colorful!