Rose of Sharon---Late Flowering; Easy to Grow; and Comes in Many Flower Colors and Shapes

The Rose of Sharon is now in bloom in most of the Ohio gardens and this bush brings a great deal of color in addition to the annual flowers and late blooming perennials.

The Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, is a flowering shrub native to Asian and is the national flower of South Korea. Initially treated as a non-hardy plant, English gardeners learned quickly the shrub can survive cold winters quite nicely.

Rose of Sharon has no autumn color and has a stiff ungainly look if badly pruned. Often times, considered to be an old-fashioned flowering shrub, it is often times not recommended to be used in most modern landscaping.

However, this shrub in bloom adds a great deal of color to the home landscape.

Starting to bloom as early as June, it will often time bloom through September.

Because Rose of Sharon readily drops seed, the seedlings will spring up throughout the garden much like a weed. I have allowed many of the seedlings to achieve some height---two to three feet---and then I have transplanted them in other areas of the garden or along my fence line for an informal flowering summer border.

This propensity to drop seed has deemed the plant to be a pest by many gardeners.

Rose of Sharon cultural requirements are:

• full sun is best, but tolerant of partial shade
• not particular about soil types
• easily transplanted ( I have transplanted in the fall and early spring with equal success)
• annual pruning back will result in increases shoot vigor and larger flowers
• likes hot weather
• winter killed stems should be removed and a spring trimming to shape the shrub. Because flowers occur on the current year’s growth, prune right after flowering or early spring before the shrub starts to leaf out.

Rose of Sharon comes in a variety of shades of purples, pinks, and white colors. Again, white is such a great color and mixing it with other darker colors offers great color contrast.