I brought my double orange tropical hibiscus inside in November. I put it near a window, but it doesn't get much light of course with such short days, and cloudy. I watered it when dry. But now, just about all its leaves are yellowing and starting to drop off. It's not soggy, even at the bottom of the pot, where I've been watering it from a dish.

I'll admit I'm not too worried, since I've had this happen with other plants and they just regrew their leaves. But it's in the living room, and not looking good, so I want to try and reverse this. Otherwise I'll just lug it to the basement with the other plants in dormancy.

It's about three feet high from its pot, well branched. I'm thinking maybe it's having a hard time supporting all the foliage on short rations? Last year it was only about a foot high and it didn't lose nearly as much foliage at once.

Just thinking aloud. Any suggestions?

I have heard of gardeners in the North overwintering tropical Hibs in the basement. It sounds like yours want to sleep over winter. I think it may bloom better next season if given a rest. You can also trim it back.

Leaves can drop when not enough light. Hibs loves the sun. Also a house is stagnant compared to the outside.

I grow the hardy Hibs. The information above is from what I have read.

I checked again when the sun was streaming through the window it's next to, and it's covered in mites. I sprayed it down with a water-alcohol solution (works well for aphids) and also just plain water, and drenched the stems with water, too. It's already recovering. I'll just have to keep up with spraying.

Never had spider mites last year, but these were sitting in front of the dry heat of a floor vent.

I kind of wish it would go to sleep (less stress for me this winter), but it's not.

Give me some pictures first. Hibiscus are my main

I'll try to take some today. It's actually gotten worse. All leaves are gone and now instead of mites I see little black bugs and what I'm guessing are their babies (they're bright red) on the stems. I just keep spraying the stems now with soapy water. It seems to get them, and I just cleared away the leaves that had dropped into the pot and covered the soil, and sprayed around the base, where it seems they were most concentrated.

They don't look like mites. I'll try to get pictures.