Not sure it this is good or bad news...but mine is growing fast. I was given what was told me, a Rose of Sharon also called Hibiscus that was trained (purned) into a tree. Was not nursery breed or bought this way. Have had it (started out much smaller like a tall twig) for about 7 yrs and it always comes to life about now. It's just now sprouting tiny leaves. Got no idea what kind it is. Has 3 to 4" blooms, sorta deep pink. Don't have pic of blooms....sorry. But here's a couple pics I just took so you can see form of plant and current growth. It was dark, so pics aren't great. I'm in 7B, in VA on coastline of Chesapeake Bay (near Va Beach/Williamsburg if that helps). Had unseasonably warm winter and now a cold snap coming thru.

Early watering of trees before a night time freeze ABSOLUTELY does give some protection in a "dry" climate or in any area of the country, for that matter, during a period with a low outside relative humidity. I would do exactly what Jose did to INTENTIONALLY increase the relative humidity around my little in ground trees. Water vapor is by far the largest green house gas that we have....man made or other wise....(Al Gore and his Global Warming crowd & our news Media would prefer that you not know this science fact). By increasing the water vapor in the areas around these trees, you WILL effectively trap some of the ground's "radiation" heat around those trees. What is trapped by this added water vapor is some of radiation heat that is quickly lost to the atmosphere after the sun goes down. Ever notice how hot a desert is in the daytime......and then how cold it is at night???? This large variation in temperature occurs simply because there is no humidity (water vapor) in the desert air. If there was some water vapor in the air, the daytime and night time temperatures wouldn't swing as much. If you could somehow increase the relative humidity of the desert air, it simply would not get as cold at night.....nor as hot during the daytime. I do agree, however, that there is also some good benefits to watering at the time of coldest temperature (closer to sunrise)....due to the latent heat of fusion effects that occur right at the freeing point (melting point) of water as it starts to change from the liquid phase (water) to the solid phase (ice). Too, it is because of this same latent effect that provides protection to fruit trees that have ice already on the branches. Keep the water sprinklers on even when you see ice (or frost) on the leaves and branches and this latent heat will keep the temperature from dropping below 32 deg. F.........that is a warm enough temperature to save a lot of trees from severe damage. Too, if somehow you can't prevent plain ole frost from forming on your trees (which can easily occur at temperatures as high as 40 deg F in my area)..........get at them with a sprinkler or hose pipe as soon as you see it and you WILL PREVENT some damage. I can get these kinds of "surprise" frosts in my area once in a while when the weather man was a bit off with his forecast..... Dan

Simply beautiful! These look like Disco Belles (shortest variety)...do you know what makes them a Luna Series? I started mine from seed from GWeb trade early spring in a cat litter bucket with the best soil possible, then transplated to right area, and believe it or not, I got some too, but very late in NY State, but beautiful none-the-less. Good luck to you...you will love them. Ginny B.

Hardy hibiscus go dormant each year. They probably ran a tad short of water while in the store, so are going dormant early. They'll most likely be fine.