Tropical plants are known for their exotic colors and showy flowers. But the firebush takes this to a new level with its bright orange blooms, lush light-green leaves, and red stems. It'southward a carnival of colors where the flowers stay in bloom from the jump to fall every year. What more can 1 ask of an ornamental plant? Perhaps fewer growing problems?

Firebush growing problems

Considering firebush growing issues tin can be frustrating sometimes. The leaves might drop, or the tropical plant struggles through the cold winter months. Pruning is a crucial part of the tropical constitute care which is a daunting task if not washed properly and at the right time. This article puts together 6 of the mutual firebush growing issues and suggests a few solutions for each 1.

Firebush Foliage Drop

It'southward no hugger-mugger that flashy leaves can be just as ornamental, if not more, than the flowers. Just effort to imagine a plant without leaves only simply blooms. Information technology immediately loses a few points on the ornamental scale. And while it's normal for plants to shed a few leaves during the growing flavor for diverse reasons, this becomes a problem if the shedding is regular and increases over time.

Firebush leaf drop tin become a serious trouble if you see as many leaves on the ground as on the found itself. And the reasons for this unhealthy phenomenon vary. But they more often than not have to do with the care you provide and the growing conditions effectually the plant rather than diseases or infections. Nigh often the constitute is dehydrated, stressed or in shock, or is struggling with too much water. Using the wrong fertilizer in excessive amounts can likewise trigger a massive leafage drop.

How to Fix It

When you have so many reasons to deal with, yous volition need to go through each one at a time and try to remedy it. If the leaves terminate dropping, then y'all know you accept found the cause. If not, then you continue with the rest of the listing. Here are a few things you can practise to end leaf drop of firebush plants.

  • Shock: The firebush is a sensitive plant. Whatsoever changes in the weather or the soil can give it a fearfulness and cause the leaves to autumn. Sudden changes in temperature either rise or falling can trigger information technology. Besides dividing the constitute or earthworks around the roots can crusade a shock. In these cases, look for the plant to regain its composure and abound back the lost leaves.
  • Also Much H2o: Wet soil often means less oxygen. When the roots fail to absorb plenty oxygen, the leaves will drop. Then allow the soil to dry out between irrigations. And always water deep to encourage the roots to grow deeper in the soil.
  • Not Plenty Water: Few plants can deal with dry soil and lack of moisture. About tropical plants are accustomed to above-average rainfall every year so they have trivial tolerance to drought. If you forget to water your firebush, the leaves will turn yellow and drop. Water the plant in one case or twice a week and give it effectually one inch of water per week during the growing season.
  • Feeding: Although non a heavy feeder, the firebush all the same needs nutrients in the soil. Apply a general-purpose fertilizer in one case a twelvemonth in the bound. Likewise much fertilizer tin damage the institute.

Firebush Container Care

Most often than non, you'll find yourself growing tropical plants in containers rather than in the garden. Container growing has many advantages. It takes less space, allows yous to move the plants around to become more dominicus, and makes wintering the plants a lot easier.

Only not all plants practise well in containers. Root bound for example, is a serious problem for plants with robust root systems. And for a shrub similar the firebush, you'll demand to do more than pruning than normal just to continue the constitute manageable. But that'southward just 1 part of the trouble. Choosing the right container size to beginning the plant and increasing information technology as yous repot it should also feature high on your priorities. So how tin you grow and care for the firebush shrub in a container?

How to Set up It

So you'll outset with a 12-inch terra-cotta pot with plenty of drainage holes at the bottom. Since the plant cannot stand up waterlogged soil, you'll need to use a well-drained and sterilized potting mix. If you desire to make your own potting mix, add together perlite to garden soil in equal parts and mix in some organic materials.

Place the container in a sunny spot facing the west or southward. Go on the institute sheltered from any chilled winds. Water the container between two to 3 times a week and don't let the soil dry out out completely.

Clip the tree regularly in the belatedly winter and compression off the tips of the branches to encourage a bushy look. You can cut the established bush back by about i-3rd to go on it compact.

Firebush Wintertime Intendance

Firebush growing problems winter care

If yous ask any gardener near the one thing they worry about the most when growing tropical plants, the answer volition invariably be wintertime care. Although in theory, yous can grow firebush shrubs in zones 8 and above, the cold wintertime of zone 8 can be brutal for the shrub.

If you don't prepare the shrub for the winter, there's little chance information technology would survive the frost. Not to mention that low temperatures leave an enduring mark on the leaf. From leaves turning colour and dropping to the plant looking stressed and condign stunted. So how would you protect your firebush from the coming wintertime and brand sure it thrives?

How to Set up Information technology

If you're growing the firebush shrub in a container, so your wintertime intendance is express to the regular annual pruning and bringing the plant indoors where it'southward warm. Cut down watering by half and don't feed information technology at all. When the last frost is over, accept the shrub outside gradually.

If you live in zones 8 and under and don't desire to abound the firebush shrub in a container, your just option is to grow it annually. There's little you can practise to proceed information technology alive during the wintertime. But since the plant has a fast growth rate and will bloom in the first year, then planting a new shrub every year doesn't sound similar a bad option. When the concluding flower has dropped in the fall, dig out the plant and apply the leaves as mulch or compost.

Firebush Cutting Propagation

If you lot take to constitute a new firebush shrub every year considering the tropical plant cannot handle your harsh wintertime months, then yous'll need to learn about firebush cutting propagation. Information technology will save you the problem of going through the lengthy and complicated procedure of starting the shrub from seeds. And since all you need is a six-inch stem from a healthy shrub, you lot tin can keep yourself supplied indefinitely equally you extract a few branches from the annual shrub before yous drop it in the compost pile. But learning how and when to propagate the firebush from cut is important for the success of the plant.

How to Fix Information technology

Timing has to be right in order for the cutting to develop roots. If you start it too early, it might freeze over, and if you first information technology late in the spring, it won't have time to grow and blossom before the cease of the summertime. Here's how to propagate the shrub from cutting in easy steps.

  1. Select a few healthy stems from a shrub and cut 6 inches of each stem.
  2. Remove the lower leaves and go on only a few leaves at the superlative of the cutting.
  3. Fill a pot with general-purpose potting mix or mix your ain with perlite and regular soil.
  4. Dip the cut in rooting hormone to encourage root evolution
  5. Milk shake off the backlog powder and plant the cutting in the soil 2 inches deep.
  6. House the soil around the cutting to keep information technology standing upright.
  7. Water the soil to become information technology moist.
  8. Go on the pot on a heat mat and ready it to 75 degrees F.
  9. You can keep the plant growing indoors until the threat of the final frost is over then transplant it in the garden.

Firebush Pruning

Firebush growing problems pruning

The topic of firebush pruning came upwardly a few times while covering many of the firebush growing problems. Lack of pruning non simply gives the shrub an unpleasant look, merely it tin can get in unmanageable. If you're growing the shrub in a container, and so you'll need to take pruning more seriously if you want to give it compact size.

Just as you'll soon observe out, pruning firebush shrubs can exist a daunting task. It's never as piece of cake as you see on Youtube videos and there are many ways you lot could go incorrect and give the shrub a scar that is difficult to ready.

How to Fix It

Yous can offset pruning the firebush shrub in the belatedly winter or early jump before the outset signs of growth. When in doubt, you can start the process in the late winter to avoid removing flower buds which usually appear early on the branches.

Cutting dorsum most one-third of the shrub in i go. Ever choose the thickest of the branches to remove outset since that triggers the new growth of young shoots in the next spring. This will besides prevent the shrub from outgrowing the container.

Experts recommend that you keep the shrub under 6 feet tall to have an affluence of blooms throughout the spring all the way to the fall.

Firebush Transplanting

Depending on where y'all live and the microclimate y'all grow the firebush shrub in, you lot might need to transplant the tropical found regularly. For case, if you lot're growing it every bit an almanac shrub, and so you'll have to starting time it indoors and then transplant information technology when the atmospheric condition warms up.

Of class growing the shrub in a container can salve y'all a lot of hassle, but that may not be possible for anybody. And because this shrub is quite sensitive, dividing or transplanting it tin can give it a daze where it will kickoff losing its leaves. So yous'll have to treat the plant with the dexterity of a neurosurgeon.

How to Fix It

The process of transplanting a mature and established firebush shrub is a lengthy one. You usually will kickoff preparing the plant for it in the fall and transplant information technology the side by side spring. Or you could start in the spring and transplant it in the fall. The thought is to allow enough fourth dimension for the plant to get used to the changes you innovate it to.

Commencement by tying upwardly the lower branches of the firebush so prune the roots. Dig a narrow trench around the perimeter of the shrub and use a sharp blade to cut the ends of the roots. Refill the trench and wait for a few months.

When you're ready to transplant the shrub, dig another trench a lilliputian wider than the previous one. Rock the shrub from 1 side to the other as y'all push a shovel deep under the root ball. Dig up the shrub and constitute it in a hole the same depth every bit the original one. H2o the shrub immediately to help the soil settle.