I'll try to remember to take pictures of my ROS in the morning and post them for you. I've cut all mine as standards. As jenny says, it takes patience to train a shrub into tree-form, but luckily ROS grow so fast you don't have to wait too long! As I recall, I started with whips from my mothers yard. (These are just the common, lavender-with-a-red-eye ROS.) I planted mine at the corner of the apartment building, and another set at the corner of the property aolong the fence and the alley. By the second summer, they were a good 5' high, and I began cutting off all the branches below 3-4'. By their third summer, they were all between 8 and 12' tall, a height they've maintained for the last three years. I simply prune off all the branches as high as I can reach. I had some vandalism, with trunks broken off on the plants in the alley, and I let one of the ones in the front grow with a fork in the trunk at about 3' high, but I think they are beautiful in this shape, especially in a small city garden. There are some drawbacks. The weight of the seedpods can sometimes pull the branches way down, and if there is a lot of seed pods left on the branches over winter they can catch a lot of snow, and the weight dragging down the branches can sometimes cause them to split off the tree. Mine have gotten so tall I can't clip off as many of the seedpods as I like, so I tie the "trees" together and to something -- drainpipe, fence post -- just to keep the branches from breaking off. By spring, I release them, and the all sigh and spread out a little bit. Pretty plants, and incredibly hardy for something so delicate looking. If I was doing it again, tho' I'd get one of those sterile versions.....

Spring Meadow's online descriptions of the newer ones they are promoting mention 'Blue Bird' (correctly 'Oiseau Bleu', "blue bird" being a translation into English and not the actual name of the cultivar) being mixed up in the trade. The same will of course become possible with Blue Satin ('Marina') TM at some point, although it is rather early in its history for other introductions to have been put on the market in its place. Bailey nursery has their own blue one that their site says was selected from a block of blue seedlings. So apparently you can sometimes raise seed of a blue one and get a number of additional blue forms. Perhaps this is what happened with 'Oiseau Bleu', seedlings of it being sold as the original clone. Or some other factor like cultural conditions is causing variation in flower tinting and plant behavior.

Hi, I used to have a Hibiscus Syriacus Blue Bird. It lived maybe 8 years in a sheltered spot, but then the winter was hard and I lost her. She was out of her zone I'm sure, as this was the only spot one survived. I have tried a few babies of her, but they don't seem to winter over. Does anyone have seeds of a similiar colour (mauve-blue) and height- 8 feet or so that is a hardier variety. I am technically in 5A for Canada. I would love to send a SASE and acquire some seeds from someone who has a hardier variety in the mauve-blue colour. Much appreciated, Mary

Will you be "mowing" or bush-hogging? (noting the "field") Seedlings on up to plants of a couple/few years of age are relatively easy to pull up by hand if the soil will "let go". While RoS are relatively resilient when/if damaged, there is still only so much even a RoS can handle before it will give up on resurrecting itself. If you have some that come up and even if you let them go for a few years and then decide you don't like them where they are - if they are too thick in diameter to weed-eat/whack, mow, or bush-hog to cut, then just take a hand axe to the base and whack it down - into the "crown" of the rootstock (so you don't leave a sharp stob above ground that can puncture a foot, hoof, paw, tire, etc.) to axe/cut it out - don't cover it back up with soil, let it dry out that way if at all possible, to inhibit it potentially coming back from the rootstock. RoS have a true taproot, though they (the taproots) are quite capable of adapting to their terrain and can grow "sideways" over bedrock, etc. if need be to get a hold, but severing that taproot has always been effective for eradicating an undesired specimen IME. The self-sown seedlings are *very easy* to identify - the seedling leaves are virtually identical (except for initial size) to that of mature leaves - so you can visually pick them out from even a radically mixed genera field, bed, etc. Think ahead of time how you would like them to look. If you want single-trunk tree-form for instance, be on the look out for multiples from a single seed early on, and prune any lower branches that you don't want before they get thick (saves pruning later and helps RoS to dedicate energy to upper level growth), etc. Consider whether or not you might want to "weave" top growth together for arches or other "designs". Do training when branches are new/young for the longterm. If you want each one to be an "eyecatcher" - provide them with plenty of space between one another. If you're not sure, you can always cull out specimens "in between" later on. Planted 3' between one another and either "woven" together or allowed to grow naturally, they can make a fair windbreak and/or relatively good privacy when in leaf and visual interest in the winter (another plus when they are trained or pruned with design in mind). You can prune one or both faces ("front" and "back") for a more uniform appearance if row-planted and encourage lateral growth along the "line" you decide upon. If you start from seed in containers, you can grow several in one container for a couple of years, protect the container/root area in winter (south side of a house, building, wrap the container, whatever) and then after a year or two (or longer if you like), transplant out into the ground and you shouldn't even have a need to mulch them. (seedlings do like to crop up in mulch - but are easy to pull out of it). The young plants don't seem to mind even rough treatment when separating multiple root systems when rootbound in a single container together. They will grow in the worst of rocky, clay soil with no water save rain, but growth is distinctly slower. The best specimens up here (best in respect to growth rate, etc.) have about a half-day of sun - one group mid-morning to early afternoon, another strictly afternoon sun, the most impressive group a couple hours of full sun and then dappled shade from towering Oaks. If you sow/plant near running water, they should be happy as larks, but you can probably expect some seeds later on to catch a ride with the water and not be surprised to find some RoS growing semi-aquatic along the banks. Birds don't seem interested in the seeds, but I have seen some curious type of insect in opened pods - not sure if they were eating seeds or just using the open pods to breed, hatch, or what exactly. I've only seen that once. No foliage damage or anything like that and no bad weather, so I don't think they were using the open pods for shelter. On insects and RoS though - nice plant to re-direct Japanese Beetles to in lieu of actual roses or other plants that don't recover as quickly when the JBs strike en masse overnight.