Blue Satin Rose of Sharon is a very strong grower, has the most beautiful blue colored blooms, and can be pruned into a single trunk ornamental tree form. I have several of this cultivar growing at different stages, and all of them seem to be sterile. This cultivar is in high demand but short on supply, and in the last couple years I have only seen small sized ones at the local nurseries. The first one I purchased several years ago was a 3 gallon pot size shrub form Blue Satin, that I have planted and am trying to prune into a single trunk. It is currently only about 3 feet tall, and will take a few more years of developing to look as nice as the different cultivar, RS tree forms I see offered at the nursery. There have been some past GW postings on this forum which suggest to let the RS grow to the desired tree height and then do some drastic pruning on the shrub to bring it into a tree form. I have begun pruning my Blue Satin Rose of Sharon to a tree form from the time I first planted it. At that time it was only about 15 inches tall. After just less than 3 years of growth and pruning, it now has a one foot tall (1 inch thick, clean trunk) with an upright growing two foot tall, vase shaped canopy. This upcoming growing season should be the first time this RS will be considered as having become well established, so I'm expecting it to gain another 2 feet or more in height before it goes dormant again; late next fall. If I prune it correctly I hope to begin Spring 2009 with it progressing to an almost 3 foot tall nicely developed trunk. By then it also should have developed a 6 foot tall vase shaped canopy. If not, I will not prune for a taller trunk until the canopy matures to a 6 foot or slightly taller height.

If you leave it alone, it will grow that way naturally. Do you mind a small tree with several trunks? I wasn't sure if you just wanted upright and tree-ish, or single-trunk in particular. The more you trim ROS, the more suckers they make. is a pic of 2 ROS's after about 3 years. They were planted much bigger than yours, but the stems that existed when planted turned into tree-like trunks. The taller one had (when the pic was taken and I don't live there anymore) 3 trunks, the shorter one about 6.

Good luck raising elderberry for fruit, though I am a bit curious as to why you would want to. They have always seemed a bit tasteless to me. :>) In my garden the fruit gets eaten by the birds as soon as it starts to ripen. You will have to net them if you want fruit or create a tall cage of PVC or metal pipe, electrical conduit, wood, etc that you can cover with either wire or plastic mesh. IME the cage works better than just a net draped over the plant. Spirea can also be cut down to the ground and it will resprout into a much nicer looking plant than previously, denser and without the dead twiggy matter that tends to form over time. For both the RofS or the spirea, if you don't want them they can be removed by cutting to ground level and painting the surface of the cuts where the bark meets the inner wood with undiluted glyphosate. If it's sunny, the base of the slope where you will be planting the vinca might be a good spot for berry bushes.

it takes 1-3 years to train into standards with good form. You must first let the plant grow tall over the season, limb the start with only the top 3rd of the plant with leaves and branches until desires high, then pinch the top and allow to branch, prune each branch back to 4-6 buds and let grow out over and over to form. Here are mine just budding out this year- cuttings of Diana grown into standards :-) The one in the back is only 1 year old, the other three are now 3 years old.