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Tom Miller (who is always an entrant at our shows), the originator of The Hibiscus Mail List on the Internet, quoted Jed Clampett on THML as saying, "The weatherman is right half the time and he’s only half-right the other half of the time." Without the professional aid of a weather forecaster, we are pretty much assured of having less rain in October than we had in September, based on averages established over many years. The temperature and humidity will decrease some too. Of course, if we get the type of storm with the name we do not mention, everything could change – dramatically.
In a way, October is when we start preparing our plants for winter, particularly our in-ground plants. This is the last month to do any pruning so that new growth will be hardened off before winter. In general we should make sure our plants are in their best condition possible, because a healthy plant has the best chance to survive the cold.
Continue to be on the look out for critters on your plants. They will take over if you don’t keep "the upper hand."
If August and September had normal or above amounts of rainfall, the fertilizer applied during those months probably washed away. That would be truth for both in ground and potted plants. Therefore, you should fertilize some more, realizing that the rule of thumb is that the final application of the year should be early in November.
According to Eric Golby, in late October, you can start hybridizing again if you are into that. According to Eric, Harry Goulding, a major hybridizer in his time, said that he got his best set of seeds at this time of year.
September November
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