I purchased a beautiful pink hibiscus last weekend. I was setting the plant in several arreas in my yard to see where I wanted to plant it. Well, I had a family emergency, and neglected to water it for several days. All the leaves a re very dry, and blooms have dried and fallen off. Have I killed it completely, or should I trim it and plant and go from here?

I'd suggest sticking the pot into a bucket of water to soak for a while. There is a chance it might recover. Do you have a photo?

I agree with woofie. Submerge it for a couple of hours to let the soil get saturated them remove it to drain. Then continue watering as you normally would, it will most likely recover.

meabeaver,
I don't know what hardiness zone you're in (your location info isn't showing up yet), but I'm in zone 6a, so my hibiscus is a 'hardy' perennial variety, ILO the tropical variety. So speaking from my own particular experience, I would say to remove all of the dead stuff and then snip off a bit from a larger branch. If it's green and moist inside, it's still alive and it will send up new shoots if you give it some tlc.

I don't know if you should cut it back necessarily. Perhaps another member can chime in here....

If you have the the tropical variety of hibiscus, I'm afraid that I can be of no help.

Good luck!!

I personally would just allow it to recover on it's own and not trim yet. Once it has recovered well you can see which parts are not going to regrow and start trimming then. Having been neglected for such a short period the stems might not even show how much damage was done, although I'm incline to think it was minimal.

I'm inclined to agree with Jay. Give it a chance before you start hacking on it. And I think I'd wait a bit before planting it in the ground. Give it some time to recover before disturbing the roots. Of course, that assumes it's not a huge plant in too small a pot.