Hello. I'm hoping someone can help me with an issue I'm having with a hibiscus bush that doesn't seem to be doing well.

I live in South Florida and have a full grown hibiscus bush that has been in my garden for probably over ten years now. It gets plenty of sun and has always done well with blooms and growth up until the last year. Now I'm noticing two issues: 1) blooms are very infrequent and short lived. 2) the bush looks rather barren and most of the leaves look undersized. There are sections on the bottom of the bush that look very healthy with big, dark green leaves, but in most of the other parts the leaves are smaller like they are new growth, but I know they aren't.

This bush has always done well with minimal effort from me so I don't know what the problem is. There have been no changes as far as exposure to sunlight, amount of watering, soil, etc., so I don't know what's wrong with it now.

Any insight or guidance will be appreciated!

I'm no expert on hibiscus, but I cut mine way back every spring, if you have lush growth near the bottom, cut it back to that. If I don't cut mine back they get leggy and less blooms. Maybe someone with more experience will chime in.

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that the problem might be that I haven't been pruning it enough. It has definitely become leggy and I get very few blooms.

The bottom of the bush is quite lush, so maybe come fall I'll be sure to prune it back significantly.

You can prune it back hard now, it will bounce right back and bloom shortly. As soon as you see some new growth you can start to feed your plant. Hibiscus do not like high phosphurous fertilizers, you will often see bloom booster formulas advertised as being good for hibiscus but stick to a lower middle number for better growth and flowering.