The How, When, and Why of Grafting

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis: The Flowers

Cultivar Name   Label Color
Generic Pink Generic Pink

Pink
Estelle Kanzler Estelle Kanzler Orange
Generic Yellow No photo available at this time. White w/2 stripes
Tylene Tylene Lavender
Molly Cummings Molly Cummings Red
Great White Great White White
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels

Green

 
Kenchen's Yellow Kenchen's Yellow Yellow
Mrs. James Hendry Mrs. James Hendry Yellow with 2 stripes
The Path The Path Pink with 1 stripe
Florida Sunset
 Florida Sunset Blue

Grafting Supplies

1. 4 Hibiscus rosa-sinensis plants
2. Grafting knife (Please be careful when opening the bag containing your supplies, the knife is sharp!)
3. CD with grafting videos
4. Budding rubbers
5. Parafilm
6. Plastic bags
7. Tags/Labels
8. Twist ties

Plant Care Instructions

Material Needed for Potting

  1. Four (4) new pots, ideally at least a size 6" (preferably plastic, clay pots dry out faster and need to be soaked for at least two hours or they will draw too much moisture from the soil mix), but not so large that the pots will be too heavy and ungainly for moving the plants around during the lab exercises. An important factor in the success of your grafts is water management. These plants, if potted in small pots, will have to watered everyday and accidentally letting them dry out will jeopardize your grafts' survival.
  2. Potting mix- Any commercial houseplant soil-less potting mix will be fine. The soil-less mix will insure proper drainage and be pest free.

Potting Instructions

  1. Remove the twist ties from the plastic bag enclosing the root balls. Don't remove the bag.
  2. Water, while in bag. Let alone for several hours.
  3. Moisten your potting mix with water until it has a crumbly character. You don't want to wet the mix so much that it is clumpy and balls up.
  4. Fill the bottom of the pot with the mix.
  5. Remove the plants from the bags, place the root ball in the pot, and continue to put mix in the pot until the root ball is buried (but not too deeply, to a point just above where the roots start growing from is fine). Lightly tamp the mix down. You want to leave about an inch of space between the top of the pot and the surface of the mix. You do that to make sure that you have a reservoir, from the surface of the mix to the top of the pot, to fill with water. This reservoir serves a couple of purposes: number one- you're not splashing mix all over the place and number two- it helps insure that enough water can be applied to the pot at each watering to facilitate proper drainage.
  6. Water thoroughly until you have drainage from the bottom of the pot.
  7. Set the pot on a saucer or plate to catch dripping water and place the plant in a sunny, warm spot out of direct sunlight. The plants can be moved into direct sunlight after a few days, but when they are grafted they will need to go back into indirect light. This is necessary to avoid excess water loss and the chance of your grafts drying out and dying.

Hibiscus Care Links

Contact Information

Kelly Hennigan
14 Plant Science
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 273-3502
kh70@cornell.edu