In March 2015, Kristi Hine purchased the True Dakotan newspaper and building on Main Street in Wessington Springs. We discovered many surprises in that building, some of which were the houseplants we inherited. A small hibiscus tree appeared to be struggling in the newspaper office, so I took it home to see if I could provide a better setting for it.
The first winter inside my house, it did okay. Then summer came and I transplanted it into a bigger pot with fresh soil and left it outside on the back patio. It thrived in its new, outdoor location and produced a handful of beautiful, red hibiscus flowers.
For about six years, I continued to bring the pot inside in the winter and outside in the summer until it became too large for its container again. During this time, in June 2020, the True Dakotan experienced a fire in the more-than-a-century- old building and went through the process of a full renovation. After 17 months working in a temporary location, the team moved the True Dakotan back into the newly renovated building and I decided it was time for the hibiscus to return home.
While it lived at my house, a few flowers would bloom every summer and then it would suffer every winter without enough light. The first winter it was back at the True Dakotan in 2021, it grew beautiful, huge, shiny leaves and produced a few flowers. We all could tell it was very happy in its new home.
Since it did so well over the winter, I didn’t put it outside the first summer on Main Street. It continued to have beautiful leaves but no buds throughout the summer and the following winter.
This last summer I decided it needed a change again, so I added some nice, Miracle Grow potting soil and let it sit outside in front of the building to receive rain water and better light. To my great joy, it had tons of buds all summer but unfortunately none of them stayed on the tree long enough to bloom, they all fell to the ground, one by one.
When September rolled around, I moved the tree inside the office and hoped being out of the South Dakota wind would help retain the buds. To my dismay, they just kept falling off and then producing more buds.
Up to this time, I had faithfully watered the tree using tap water, until about a week and a half ago. Instead of dumping water from the dehumidifier down the drain, I started watering all the plants with the water from the tank. Monday morning when I came into the office, I was greeted with these big, beautiful flowers. I couldn’t believe my eyes!
Looks like it didn’t like the tap water and prefers filtered water accumulated from the air in the office. Right now, it has seven fully opened flowers and is covered with buds in various stages ready to bloom. I couldn’t be happier! So goes my tale of the hibiscus tree, hopefully with many more years of flowering joy.