Regularly pruning the hibiscus not only gets the flowering going, but also keeps the hibiscus tight, strong and in shape.
Although he does not request a cut, he rewards plant lovers and hobby gardeners with significantly more flowers in the following year. In the following, you will find out how you can / should proceed and what you need to pay attention to in the professional pruning instructions for garden marshmallows.
time
The right time to prune the garden hibiscus is in autumn or spring. Autumn is the better time to encourage growth by pruning. Whether new shoots, dense foliage or a magnificent growth of flowers, the autumn pruning is more suitable here than later in spring, just before the new growing season begins. However, the temperatures should still be well above 10 degrees Celsius and no ground frost in sight. The best way to do this is to cut the garden hibiscus in autumn by the end of it at the latest September / early October and it should be a dry day for pruning the hibiscus to get voted.
Cutting tool
The cutting tool is a very important point. In order to keep the interfaces relatively straight without lateral fraying and as small as possible, only sharp devices such as knives or secateurs are to be used. Electric hedge trimmers for hibiscus hedges are only partially suitable because they are usually only suitable for pruning young shoots and thin branches.
As soon as these become a little thicker, the devices usually tilt and turn off automatically. This means that with an electric hedge trimmer, only minor cuts are possible, which are primarily aimed at correcting the shape and straight lines are desired. If they are clearly out of shape and a deep cut is required, mechanical cutting tools or powerful cutting devices must be used.
Edge hygiene
The garden hawk always shows itself to be immensely robust with regard to diseases, but the Using dirty cutting tools can quickly lead to infections, especially on damp autumn days to lead. The transmission of pathogens such as
Fungi, in the autumn months and with contaminated cutting tools, have a great chance of harming the garden hibiscus. These must be cleaned thoroughly before each use and ideally disinfected. Various options are available for this:Flame
Flaming creates a fire in the flame of which the cutting blades are held for a few seconds. Care must be taken here that the blades and the flame come into contact with each other, only then that a few seconds are enough to kill bacteria, viruses and / or fungal spores.
A gas Bunsen burner or burning alcohol are suitable for flaming.
alcohol
To achieve effective disinfection with alcohol, use either alcohol or isopropanol. In the case of alcohol, this is mixed with distilled water in a ratio of 7: 1. Isopropanol should be a 70 percent solution that can be bought ready-made in pharmacies, for example. 70 percent alcohol is also available and in theory you could save yourself the need to mix it up. However, this is mainly undenatured and drinkable alcohol, such as alcohol, which is priced far above normal alcohol.
In both cases, the cutting tools for your garden hibiscus should be placed in the solution and should remain fully immersed there for at least two minutes. Then either dry it off with a clean cloth or, even better, don't dry it off, but let it drip off.
Chemical disinfection
You don't have to worry about any residues of fungi or bacteria from your garden hibiscus if you soak your cutting tool in it before pruning in the fall season. Here, for example, the "Dimanin" remedy from BAYER is ideal. As a five percent solution and with an immersion time of just one minute, all harmful residues on scissors or knives are reliably killed.
Cutting technique
In order to expose the hibiscus to as little strain as possible by cutting and of course to disease
To prevent this, it is advisable to use a pruning technique in which you make smooth cuts directly on the trunk or branch. In addition, an oblique cut should be made. This reduces the size of the interface. In addition, the water drips off well on an inclined cut, so that the interface can dry out better and any bacteria that may be present are removed with the (rain) water. If the bevel cut is made on sloping branches in such a way that the longer attachment is at the top ideally, the interface is not hit by water and dries even better away.After the cut
Autumn usually always brings a lot of damp weather with it. This means that the interfaces on a garden hibiscus heal / dry much more slowly than would be the case at warm, dry temperatures. With the longer open interfaces, the risk of illness increases automatically. Even without a dirty cutting tool, fungal spores can get into the interior of the plant parts via the wind and spread there mostly unnoticed during the entire winter. Virus infections are also one of the dangers that can penetrate the plant through damp interfaces. Therefore, interfaces on a garden hibiscus should always be treated in the autumn season. The following products, which are applied to the cuts, are suitable for this purpose:
- Coal powder
- resin
- cinammon
- wax
- Zinc dust
TIP: In an extremely humid autumn season, it is advisable to first pre-treat with cinnamon or charcoal powder for disinfection and then to seal the interfaces with wax or resin. Zinc dust takes on both of these properties, disinfecting a little and clogging the capillary.
Types of cuts
There can be several reasons for pruning. Above all, the autumn pruning of the garden hibiscus is advisable because of the growth. This is to be divided into different areas with regard to the types of cut.
Upbringing
The term "education cut" suggests that this is a growth cut for young garden hibiscus. From the first year of life, the young plants should be cut back regularly in the autumn months so that they branch out more in each subsequent year. In the first few years, this is still quite easy due to the fact that there are usually still few shoots. Every year the hibiscus gets fuller and the effort increases accordingly.
The autumn pruning should always be done generously by shortening all shoots and the trunk by three quarters. The upbringing does not end until the year when the plant is densely overgrown and has no / hardly any clear areas. After that, cuts can be made as required, as explained below.
High trunk cut
The high trunk cut is a kind of education cut in which a still young garden hibiscus cuts in this way so that on a "bare" trunk there is a wonderfully bushy leafy foliage with magnificent flowers forms. The "Hibiscus Syriacus Hamabo" variety is particularly suitable for tall trunk growth, which requires a lot of patience calls because it takes between four and six years to get through the professional cut arises.
Prune your plants like
- First year: cut lateral branches down to two or three buds - trunk remains untouched
- Subsequent years: Cut off all branches except for one bud - the main shoot is shortened to five or six eyes
- Final cut: cut the trunk at the desired height - cut off all side shoots
- Preserved crown: only cut back well-developed branches except for one or two eyes
Conservation cut
A maintenance pruning for your garden hibiscus is a measure in which you can influence the growth habit and / or the growth of the crown. The cut is made as follows:
- Dried and diseased branches are cut off
- Shorten branches that are too long or weakly developed to three or four eyes
- Separate branches that have developed on one side just above a deep branch
Taper cut
Over the years, the hibiscus in the garden often becomes increasingly lighter. As a rule, this is mainly due to the internal branches, which wither, unnecessarily devour nutrients and take up space for fresh, new shoots. That is why every garden hibiscus sooner or later needs a rejuvenating pruning. As a precaution, this can of course be carried out before your garden specimen is even brighter. For the taper cut, do the following:
- Heavily thinned: strong pruning of two-thirds of all branches and the trunk
- Normally exposed: cut back by a third and cut all old, withered twigs and transverse adhesions
- Clearing cut: thin out and completely cut off dried, scruffy and cross-growing branches
Hedge trimming
The garden hibiscus is becoming increasingly popular as a hedge. This requires a special pruning in the autumn months so that it has a compact hedge shape and numerous flowers grow on fresh shoots every summer. The pruning should be done in September or October as follows:
- Complete cut back by a third
- Carry out the complete pruning every year
- Cut away dry twigs, especially in the inner area
- Draw string along the hedge for straight cutting lines
TIP: If you cut the hibiscus hedge so that it is slightly beveled towards the top, the light exposure will be improved. This promotes growth and reduces the chance of the interior becoming old.
Radical cut
A radical incision is especially recommended if the hibiscus has previously suffered from an illness or it has extreme thinning due to its age and / or the growth hardly or not evenly he follows. Although the hibiscus usually tolerates a radical cut well, this nonetheless leads to a burden. Depending on why a radical cut appears to be the solution for healthy and strong growth, it does not always recover afterwards.
It is therefore advisable to make a radical cut over a few years. This means that the hibiscus is regularly shortened a little throughout the year and a little more in the fall season than in the previous year. You can continue this until the radical cut ends above the first branch on the main stem. This is usually between five and ten centimeters above the surface of the earth.