hibiscus disease?

[embee]

I have 2 hibiscus plants. The first one I grew from seed about 20 or more years ago. It has spent a life in and out of pots and in and out of the conservatory and outdoors. It flowered well when I brought it into the conservatory. That was about 3 or 4 years ago. We tried putting it into a warm part of the garden and it didn\'t flower. In fact although the leaves came no buds came, and bright orange lichen and green lichen grew on the branches so we dug it up and put it in a large pot in the conservatory. We noticed at this point that the roots had not spread into the surrounding soil. The pot is 20\" and the height of the plant is 50\". This year it has had 3 or 4 flowers on it, that\'s all. I\'ve noticed that is not taking up the water or feed.

The second one was bought as a plant and it flowered last year. It has spent its whole life in the conservatory. It too is not taking up water and feed and the leaves are dropping off although I see the buds are showing colour.

I feel inclined to take them both out of the pot and cut off some roots before replacing them. Can someone tell me what to do please?