Hibiscus Diary
I've adopted my mom's two gumamela plants given to her by Gilson on Mother's Day. He said they were hardy plants, not needing much attention, just sun and water. Sadly, a couple of weeks later, the hardy plants were hardly plants heavily infested by ants and white stuff on its eyes and flowers. My mom asked our maid to cut off the heavily infested areas, but what was left of the plant was even less than what was cut off. Gilson gave me a few ounces of some pesticide his mom uses on her gumamelas to drive away the aphids. I used it a couple of times then checked some sites about hibiscus care.It turned out that aphids weren't infesting my plants--aphids are larger than the white stuff on mine--, but rather, mealybugs. White fluffy things that suck the sap outta the plant and attract ants that add more damage to the defenseless gumamelas. But to my relief, a simple remedy was prescribed: rubbing alcohol.
The next day, armed with cotton buds and Green Cross, I put my plants aside and attacked the mealybugs, only to discover the real culprit. As I swiped the white stuff away, the cottony things were just a coverup of the real soft-bodied, almost maggot-like little devils--wolf in damn sheep's clothing! For three days, I fought those pests leaving no leaf unturned. After clearing the mealybugs, I went back to using Gilson's pesticide, using it every other day, and making sure that the soil stays moist.
Since then, the gumamelas look more like the hardy plants they're supposed to be and not the "twigs sticking out of a pot of soil" they were once. I have yet to see blooms again, but at least the leaves are back. But at the rate they're going, and with the crazy weather that (I think) is good for the gumamela (rainy one day, super sunny the next), it won't be long til they start showing their true colors.
posted by George Rocha-Chu @ 11:15 PM
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