The potted plant with the longest blooming period: it flowers for more than half the year, is beautiful and easy to care for, and can be grown as a bonsai tree

Introduction

Green potted plants are essential decorative items for home life. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it beautifies the room and lifts your mood. "Huasheng Potted Plant Diary, Issue 1314" introduces you to a flower with an exceptionally long blooming period.

Today's featured plant

In the crisp, cool days of autumn, it is the best time to grow flowers: however you care for them, they survive. If you already have pothos, spider plants, succulents and the like, you might as well get to know this flower. It is fairly common in Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places, and is known as a blooming machine: give it a bit of sunlight and it blooms nonstop.

Little Hibiscus

This flower is called Little Hibiscus, also known as little rose of Sharon. It is a perennial small shrub in the mallow family (Malvaceae), native to southern Africa, and has been introduced and cultivated in many parts of China. Its petals are light and delicate, its flower shape is elegant, and its flower color is soft and lovely, ranging from light pink to deep pink. The more sufficient the light, the redder the color, giving it high ornamental value.

Blooming machine

Little Hibiscus is one of the ornamental flowers with the longest blooming period. As long as the temperature is suitable and the light is sufficient, this plant keeps blooming. Its peak blooming period lasts more than half a year, continuous through spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the flower quantity is enormous: a single branch can bear dozens of flowers at the same time, and "bursting into a potful" is very easy.

Easy to care for

Little Hibiscus is very robust and very easy to care for. It can also be propagated by cuttings: take a mature branch segment, keep 3-5 leaves, insert it into sandy loam soil, and keep it moist. In about half a month it can take root and sprout, and before long it is a small tree again. It likes light, but in summer it should not be exposed to scorching sun and should be shaded. In winter it can tolerate a low temperature of 0°C, and watering should be controlled to avoid damaging the roots. Overall, the difficulty of care is low.

"Lollipop" bonsai tree

Little Hibiscus is a woody plant with rapid growth. A small seedling can grow large in one year, has many branches, and tolerates pruning. There are generally two pruning methods: pinching the top to promote vigorous side branches, which can make the tree form a "ball shape"; or not pinching the top and only removing side branches, which can create a "lollipop"-shaped bonsai tree. It is perennial: plant it once, and it blooms every year, with high value for money and well worth getting.