I'm no expert on these; but I do have one Copper King. I've been told it's nearly impossible to overwater it. I've got it mulched and soak it almost every day in hot weather. It looks great and doesn't droop at all.

thanks. ive also noticed something wrong with my hibiscus plant (not wilt disease like my mom's) but it looks very bare. It has one branch that shoots from the main stem. the main stem has about just a pair of leaves on the top and nothing more, same thing with the other branch. there are about 4 leaves at the common base. now what is wrong with my plant? no yellowing, no pests, no eaten leaves just bare or very sparse leaves

My Golden Rave all have spindly ragged looking new growth, but the plants are doing great and growing huge and that's just how the new growth looks on them. The downward twisting of the branches happened to me with Jet Stars when I let the pots dry out, and after transplant shock.

It would seem then, that your answer to what's critically ailing the plant is to be found in the watering interval. The plant isn't going to die from root congestion in the immediate future (before an opportune time to repot rolls around) but it's decline and how it will decline if all you do is pot up is predictable. The following numerical model is an illustration to delineate between the effects of repotting vs potting up. Repotting vs Potting Up I often explain the effects of repotting vs potting up like this: Let's rate growth/vitality potential on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best. We're going to say that trees in containers can only achieve a 9. Let's also imagine that for every year a tree goes w/o repotting or potting up, its measure of growth/vitality slips by 1 number, That is to say, you pot a tree and the first year it grows at a level of 9, the next year, an 8, the next year a 7. Let's also imagine we're going to go 3 years between repotting or potting up. Here's what happens to the tree you repot/root prune: year 1: 9 year 2: 8 year 3: 7 repot year 1: 9 year 2: 8 year 3: 7 repot year 1: 9 year 2: 8 year 3: 7 You can see that a full repotting and root pruning returns the plant to its full potential within the limits of other cultural influences for as long as you care to repot/root prune. Looking now at how woody plants respond to only potting up: year 1: 9 year 2: 8 year 3: 7 pot up year 1: 8 year 2: 7 year 3: 6 pot up year 1: 7 year 2: 6 year 3: 5 pot up year 1: 6 year 2: 5 year 3: 4 pot up year 1: 5 year 2: 4 year 3: 3 pot up year 1: 4 year 2: 3 year 3: 2 pot up year 1: 3 year 2: 2 year 3: 1 This is a fairly accurate illustration of the influence tight roots have on a woody plant's growth/vitality. You might think of it for a moment in the context of the longevity of bonsai trees vs the life expectancy of most trees grown as houseplants, the difference between 4 years and 400 years lying primarily in how the roots are treated. ******************************************************************* Since I don't know where you live, it's difficult to offer any meaningful advice insofar as a date for you to target as the ideal time to pot up, but for the US, mid-late June is the best time. I often suggest the summer solstice (first day of actual summer) or Father's Day as target dates in the northern hemisphere because they're easy to remember. BTW - including where you live in your user info [like my tapla (mid-MI z5b-6a)] allows others to give more meaningful/specific advice. Al