[gardeners] rose of sharons
c.l. avery (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 02 Jul 2001 16:12:59
I just happen to have dozens of rose of sharons, all around the backyard
fence for the entire perimeter of the yard as a matter of fact. Found them
all here when I bought the place 3 summers ago. What I've found is that the
rose of sharon wants to be a bush and/or tangle of sprouts. So, if you want
it to be tree-like, which is what I wanted, then I had to consistently and
persistently prune off any and all branches below a certain height. I was
merciless. Anything found below a certain height and I chopped it off. I
found too, that that first summer that I did this, the rose of sharons
accepted it as a challenge and kept putting out side branches and new shoots
like mad. I was having to keep up with my pruning and trimming about once a
month. And with the number of rose of sharons I have, that was taking me a
couple of hours to do. But, then the second spring and summer, I found that
I had to prune once in the spring and once in the fall. And this
spring/summer I've hardly had a few lower sprigs to brush off...total
pruning time about l0 mins. With each passing year they have seemed to
accept their pruning and their destiny to be a tree shape. I picked the
height of my waist as the line of demarcation ... anything lower than that
and it gets pruned. They look quite nice now, I think, and serve as a
screen between my backyard and the neighbor's but yet allow me to see the
grass and etc through the naked lower stems/trunk. They just started
flowering this week!
Carolyn
Bethesda
Zone 7a
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