Most hibiscus are fairly tropical. I'm in Zone 6b too and my hibiscus look great all summer without too much care. I don't even try to bring them inside during the winter, I just purchase new ones in the spring. Sometimes I keep them in pots and move them around the patio and sometimes I just plant them. I don't normally feed them anything special, if I'm fertilizing my tomatoes then I just give them some of the same thing.

I'm not sure about the driveway heat - but a few of mine are in urns on the concrete pavers by the pool. But the urn raises them up about 12 inches off the pavers. I do dead head because the flower is short lived.

Good luck with them. I'll bet they look great by the garage and I love the braided ones.

Sue, are the leaves sort of glossy?

If so, they are the tropical variety, which I sort of suspect.

Which means, you have to bring them indoors over winter.

Feeding, means fertilizer. What ever you use for other plants now is prolly sufficient.

Moni

I always grow the tropical hibiscus in big pots every summer. They can take all day sun. It is a shame that the bloom only last one day and I dead head too. I use a light mixture of Miracle Grow about every two weeks. I don't bring them in for the winter so I have to start over every year. One year I did have the ones with the braided stems and I gave them to my sister. She has a place to winter them and they are still very nice after 5 or 6 years.
My problem this year is the squirrels. They are eating the leaves off the stems.

The leaves are I would say a little bit glossy, so I guess they are tropical.

I have Miracle Grow and Shultz Bloom Booster, so I guess either would work. I plan on bringing them in and try to keep them over winter. My garage has a back door with window and gets all the afternoon sun. It would be a shame to lose them.

Thanks.

Sue

We have 2 of them and have had others in the past. They tend to get aphids and whiteflies here, not sure if you get them in your area or not. I just spray them with water and liquid dish detergent from a spray bottle. Kills them on contact! Ours are in the sun all day and do really well. I'm in So CA though!

Sue, as Jackie mentioned, use a light mixture of fertilizer. Especially since they are in pots, and in a hot location, too much fertilizer is worse than too little. If you are going to fertilize every 2 weeks, then I recommend 1/4 of the recommended amount. Also, after August don't fertilize, so that they slow down their growth a bit so that they can be taken into the house in October. I hope that they get enough sun in the spot you have. It probably is fine. My neighbors in suburban Chicago used to bring their hibiscus in for the winter and out for the summer, and they did just fine. Good luck.g

if you do bring them in make sure to not let them get below 50, even at night. you might check the temps at ground level because the pots will probably sit on concrete. they will drop leaves and die w/ temps that low and such low light levels. even your summer full sun light outside is significantly less intense than central and south FL. the grower i work for does not ever bother to do hibiscus here in orlando because if you don't keep them above 60 at night and supply extra lighting in the winter they will never be as nice & healthy as from south FL. rehabing one w/ dropped leaves is waaayyy to much work. they become susceptible to aphids, white flies, mealy bugs etc...and take soo long to get looking good then it's fall again.

i would fertilize them often, they are very heavy feeders as long as you don't let them get over dried out and you water them thoroughly, letting water run thru the pot, flushing excess fertilizer salts out (which is what ultimatley kills over fertilized plants). they love heat so being on the driveway is ideal. more than likely you have a tropical type vs. a florist type. the florist type have very deep dark green leaves w/ an almost ruffled pinking-edge while the tropicals are green but not that deep dark almost blackish color. tropicals have a serated edge not a rounded ruffled type.

when i lived in chicago i was a buyer for a small chain of upscale garden centers and brought tropicals up from south fl. i could not keep $75 standard (tree) 7 gal. hibiscus trees in stock, they only cost $15. here lol. people bought them for the summer season and let them die and got new ones each yr. before fuel increases, you could make quite the killing bringing tropicals up to the northern states. ~ liz