The tropics can be brought into your yard or house with the help of hibiscus plants. When it comes to light, water, and temperature requirements, establishing tropical plants in non-tropical regions can be a challenge. Your new tropical plant may not be accustomed to the quantity of sunlight your yard receives. Hibiscus plants need a lot of light, both indoors and outdoors. Keep reading to learn more about their light requirements.
Hibiscuses require a lot of exposure to sunlight.
Hibiscus do not require as much direct sunshine as is widely believed, despite the fact that they regularly thrive in totally sunny settings. There is no need to bring your plants outside to for them to blossom, as long as they get 2 hours of direct sunlight each day! The hibiscus, on the other hand, won’t bloom if it doesn’t get enough sunshine.
Hibiscus thrive when they are exposed to the right amount of sunlight, heat, and water. The sun’s rays and the earth’s surface temperature are diametrically opposed. Temperatures should be decreased by limiting the amount of sunlight. Lower temperatures are preferable when the sun is out. The hibiscus needs more water when both sunlight and temperature are high, and less water when any or both of these conditions are absent.
So, what does this actually mean? Let’s have a look at a few examples:
- Because of the moderate climate in the California coast, it is best to choose a position with lots of direct sunlight. In our own garden, we have seen and grown even the most modern varieties of hibiscus survive in full light all day long.
- It is preferable to plant hibiscus in a spot with a lot of shade but some direct sunlight if you live in inland California or southern regions like Arizona, where the climate is hot and dry.
- If you live in a state like Florida or coastal Texas, a partially shaded position is ideal, but regular cloud cover and rain diminish the requirement for shade and hibiscus may be grown in full sun.
- There is nothing wrong with preferring to relax on a porch that only gets morning or afternoon sunlight. Hibiscus thrives in an area with some shade from nearby trees, but still gets some direct sunlight.
Sunburn
It is possible for hibiscus to become sunburned! This can only happen if they’ve been grown in a place with a lot of intense, direct sun, such as a house or a greenhouse, and then moved there. As a result of the high sunshine, some leaves turn a dazzling white color because of the loss of chlorophyll. In most cases, this isn’t a serious issue that will persist for an extended period of time. New leaves will emerge that are used to being exposed to direct sunlight and will not burn as a result of this exposure. Try exposing your new hibiscus to direct sunlight for only an hour on the first day to avoid this problem, and then gradually increasing exposure over the course of a week or two. However, rapid transitions from shade to direct sunlight may result in the white sunburn look on some leaves of the Hibiscus.
Types of Light from the Sun
The hibiscus may blossom well in one shaded area, but not in another. In most cases, this is linked to the amount of sunlight that the hibiscus receives. Hibiscus’ ability to develop and bloom is directly related on the amount of PAR (a metric of light that triggers photosynthesis in plants). There’s never a shortage of PAR when most of the day is spent in direct sunlight. Even in areas that are partially or completely shadowed, indirect sunlight can still play a role in a plant’s ability to absorb and use sunshine each day. The more PAR there is in a shade, the more brilliant it is. As a result, not only does the amount of time spent in the shade matter, but also the type of shade. It is more likely that dappled light near trees contains more PAR than shadow that completely covers direct sunlight. In any given location, the amount of useable light that a plant receives is equal to the sum of the PAR of the direct sunlight and the PAR of the indirect sunlight (in the shade). The plant must be moved to a location with either more direct sunshine or better quality indirect light if the PAR is too low for it to blossom.
Flowers and Sunshine
Hibiscus can still generate a large number of buds even in the midsummer heat, however these buds may fall off before they have the chance to open. Rats! Unless the plant is suffering from a lack of water, the only thing you can do is move it to a more shady, cooler area of the house. It’s important to remember what we discussed about the importance of heat, sun, and water in hibiscus performance. Sun should be lowered and water should be raised in mid-summer due to rising temperatures. It is essential to increase the frequency and amount of watering for hibiscus if it is not possible to relocate them to a less sunny spot. It’s possible that even with this treatment there will be moments throughout the summer when blooms fail to fully open.
But don’t be alarmed! The plants begin to bloom gloriously again as the warm weather cools. Don’t worry about it too much; it’s all part of the routine.
Even though hibiscus plants demand a lot of light, they can be grown inside. You only need to ensure that the weather is clear enough. Keep your container-grown plant facing south or southwest to maximize the amount of light it receives. A hibiscus plant’s best environment is a bright window, where it will thrive and produce abundant blooms. Artificial lighting is an option if natural sunshine isn’t enough to suit the hibiscus’ light needs indoors.
And with that, I’ll leave you. When you give your hibiscus what it needs to thrive, it’s a cinch to keep it in good health and good spirits.
