A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Rose of Sharon Seeds

The two tentitively identified plants at the church just shed a bunch of seed pods. The pods were still green and the seeds were white. Are these viable.

I'm thinking they are rose of sharon because the flowers are smaller than the hybiscus I have seen.

Tammy - my rose of sharon seeds are not viable until they are dried and brown. This usually doesn't happen here until the fall. That said... I have baby plants ALL OVER my grass surrounding the 2 bushes and in the beds they are planted in - no wonder my dad calls it "the nuisance bush"!

Thanks for the information Lynne. I'm going to keep my eye on that bush. I think it would be fun to start some next year for the ladies that have homes in the area. They are a pretty bush. We have the white with the dark purple eye and the light purple ones.

Tammy, could you post a picture of the one that is white with a dark purple eye? I would love to see one like that. I have several solid white and a few white with red eye plus every other color imaginable and they all have the red eye. Plus one that was apparently cross-pollinated by the friendly bee community and turned out to be white with pink "blush" streaks and it, too, has the red eye.

I LOVE rose of Sharon...they never disappoint me.

I'll try. I forgot to take my camera on tuesday. But I'll try to remember it on sunday. I want to get pictures of the plants so I can get some help identifying them.

Here is my white rose of sharon today...


and my magenta one 2 weeks ago -
it's really a bit more purple than it looks here...

Oh Lynne, I love the magenta one, but I guess that's really no surprise! Unfortunately, I just don't have room for any more bushes in my yard and they get so big.

By the way, I wanted you to now I didn't bail out on you in the Coneflower thread. I was having a lot of trouble with my computer and couldn't get on here for the last several weeks. It's still not fixed yet and the modem I'm using is as slow as a snail.

Your white one is that what is called a red eye? The one at the church appears darker but then my eyes aren't all that good. I'll try real hard to get a descent picture.

Those are beautiful Lynne!!!

Nothing wrong with your eyes, Tammy!
I just looked at the tag, and right you are - it's called

Red Heart rose of Sharon

Thanks Penny!
Patti - I probably have some seeds of the pink one, if you can find an inch of space in your gardens! You can prune them so they don't get very large at all - I prune mine each year.

ooops - hiccup!

Hmmm, you're tempting me! My neighbor has some rose of Sharon and they are as big as bushy trees, but I think they have seen there for sometime.

I probably need to trim the ones at the church. I think they are volunteers from next door. Either that or next door are volunteers from us lol.

Patti - I usually keep my pink one at about 6 feet high, and about 4 feet wide. I've had it for about 8 years or so now, and it does not seem to mind the annual pruning.

I've had the white one for 4 years, and only prune off branches that take away from the shape of the bush. It is planted in the center of "Cookie's Garden" because she was a black and white cat, and I wanted white flowers for her.

Oh geesh, Lynne, 6'X 4' that's bigger than me! I really don't have that kind of room to spare. Although I have been contemplating taking out a very large Forsythia bush that hardly blooms but it would be a chore to remove it since it's probably been there forever. Actually, if I ever do decide to take it out I would probably put in the Hydrangea Endless Summer. Boy, that is such an awesome plant and I love it! Three months of huge, beautiful pink (if you amend the soil to alkaline) blooms and it's hardy to zone 4. What more could you ask for?

Hey Patti,

If you want your Forsythia to bloom better. After it is done blooming get in there with sheers and cut out about 1/4 of the canes. The plant will thankyou for it with nice blooms the next year.

Actually, I've been doing just that for the past 11 or 12 years and it really hasn't helped much. When my mom first moved in here it was such a strange looking thing. It was about 6-7' tall with heavy, thick, bare canes all the way up to the top where there were some leaves. From a distance it almost looked like a bunch of palm trees. The man at the nursery told me to do the same thing you said and he also said to take about 1/4 off the remaining tops for several years until it was a managable size. Well, I now have a huge, rounded shrub that does get a few yellow flowers you can hardly notice and they do not last very long anyway. I think it's so old it has used up all it's blooming energy. I guess the main reason it's still here is because the birds love to get in there year-round.

Interesting. Maybe the soil needs amending? Have you done a soil test in that area? That's the only other thing I can think of. But then you've been at this a lot longer than I have.

No, I've never tested the soil because I guess the flowers have never been a priority. My mom was just thrilled that I got the Forsythia to grow big and bushy so it provided some privacy for the patio and that's probably the way I feel about it now, too. It might be nice if it would bloom, but it's really not important to me now.

Patches, I keep my ROS's trimmed down very small. The woman who lived here before us planted 5 bushes-- 3 up very close to the house and the other 2 were put on either side of the sidewalk that goes out to the road. I prune them down in January to about 3x4 or smaller, just so they aren't scraping the house, or covering the sidewalk. They bloom like mad--my neighbors have been growing ROS's for years and walk over to say they've never seen plants bloom as much as mine. I'd guess they bloom so well because I chop them down so much.

Sarah

I just collected seed pods from the bushes at the church. And your right it is a red center in the white one. and the other is a mid pink. Now since they are growing side by side it's anyones guess what colors the pods will produce right?