How to hand pollinate?

A very time consuming project. You can use a small paint brush. Dip it in the pollen from one flower, brush it on the next. Just like a bee.

Hi Jaishree,

The small paint brush method works very well, another way I have seen is when the blooms are open some people have just shaken the plants just below the blooms-not too vigorously- to release the pollen and fertilize the flowers.

If you don't have a small paint brush, you could also use a Q-tip.

It's not too difficult. For larger plants, like squash, I pick the male flower off of the plant, peel the leaves back and touch the inside of the male bloom to the center of the female blooms. Hope this helps!

The bees in my area seem to pretty much ignore my hibiscus plants. The flowers stay open longer if the get pollinated, so I do it my hand. I couldn't get a paint brush or Q-tip to grab the pollen, so I use my fingers to take some off and a fingertip to put some on each stamen on the flowers. I would recommend using an artists paint brush of decent quality, not plastic bristled, or a Q-tip before you use a finger, it just works better for my hibiscus.