What is this on my Rose of Sharon plant?

[Dinu]

Bought this short plant in last year's June. It gave 3-4 flowers - two buds were in it when I bought. It has not grown much at all despite putting it in the ground in well drained soil. I saw this covering where the branch tip is supposed to grow on. The leaves were also afflicted with mealys. It was hard to control - it is a problem in the winter months. Later I discovered that this was some sort of sap-sucker that may be preventing growth. The leaves had also wilted due to the mealys. Since there were very few leaves of this 1-foot plant, I removed the infestation manually and sprayed water over. It tended to recover. Being a gardener who never thinks of inorganic additions to the plants or earth, I did not do much. What could this thing be and is there a way to eradicate them from the plant? I don't see this on my other hibiscuses except mealys. I want to see it grow well and taller! I love the blue flowers!

 

[Chuck]

That looks like scale insects. There are 2 kinds of scale insects, soft and hard and it appears you have both. There are many kinds of each but they all are plant suckers that suck the sap from a plant. They both can be controlled with Neem. The hard scale, when it dies, doesn't fall off of the plant but will disappear as the plant gets larger. You might possibly have aphids too as I see an ant and ants sometimes collect aphids so they can feed on their excrement which is called honeydew.

 

[Dinu]

There are tiny white things under the leaves and ants do gather there for that reason. They are all preventing healthy growth of the plant. The star shaped things are quite tough to remove from the plant but they can be crushed easily. I used to buy neem cake from a local oil expeller/extractor. I'll have to see if I can get that again. Neem oil may also be available. Haven't used the oil before. In winter, my yard will get infested with mealys and it becomes very difficult to control them.
Did you see my macro photos on the garden photography forum? But here is the one that I had taken with reverse lens macro - on hibiscus plant last year. See the tiny insects.

 

[Chuck]

There are tiny white things under the leaves and ants do gather there for that reason. They are all preventing healthy growth of the plant. The star shaped things are quite tough to remove from the plant but they can be crushed easily. I used to buy neem cake from a local oil expeller/extractor. I'll have to see if I can get that again. Neem oil may also be available. Haven't used the oil before. In winter, my yard will get infested with mealys and it becomes very difficult to control them.
Did you see my macro photos on the garden photography forum? But here is the one that I had taken with reverse lens macro - on hibiscus plant last year. See the tiny insects. View attachment 14260

scale for sure