I bought my first two hibiscus trees last summer, and they did beautifully on our deck. I brought them inside when it started to get cold and kept them in the basement next to the sliding glass doors so they'd get some sunlight. I watered them very occasionally, but over the winter, they both lost all of their leaves (some turned yellow first) and ended up looking like a bunch of sticks. I did nothing in terms of pruning and really thought they were finished. Well, lo and behold, about a month ago, one and then the other started growing new leaves - the smaller one is now beautiful and blooming; the other is coming along more slowly but more new leaves and future blooms are sprouting every day. Recently I started to bring them outside during the day and inside again at night, and I started watering them regularly and feeding them once a week with Miracle Gro. Now it's warmed up enough to leave them outside all the time, and they seem to be doing great. Maybe before you prune, you should try taking them outside when it's warm enough during the daytime - sunlight and warmer temps seem to have done wonders for mine. Good luck!

You have white flies - just like I am fighting. The most common cures are spraying the plants with soapy water, Neem oil, worm castings on ground around them or Bayer Advance Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Control which is VERY expensive but I just tried tonight since none of the other cures worked completely for me. I have 29 hibiscus that have the bottom 1/3 of the plants COVERED in the white web/larva/flies. I just came to this forum to see what others have suggested and will try their suggestions: tangle foot on yellow plastic plates because they are attracted to yellow and will stick to the tangle foot (or fly sticky traps that are yellow), Naturalus T & O, Isotox if all else fails. GOOD LUCK!!!

Could've also been sawfly larvae. Check the underside of an affective leaf. I only handpick, but it was without a doubt a tedious year doing that. Although it might be too late now, keep it in mine for next year. It seems to get worse every year in my garden...

In more detail, the affected plants (3) are about 5 ft high, several years old and I would estimate 20% of the leaves have this spot, mostly lower down. While it has been very hot here in NJ, I think watering has been adequate, mostly on the soil and not overly wet foliage. Also most of my hibiscus plants are not affected by this pest at all. The spot or blisters are fairly uniform in size and appearance. It may not show in the photo but the blister (1/2 inch) is noticeably sunken. I just looked at the underside (raised side) of the blister with a magnifying glass and they appear to have clusters of tiny orange/yellow dots. Thanks for any assistance as I would hate to have the plants die.