I couldn't get the photo to work, but it looks like the thumbnail works.

I can't see your photo, but from what I've read, Rose of Sharon can get to be 10 to 12 feet high and fairly wide, so if that's what you've got, I'd say it's pretty much on target.

You can prune it, though. It does grow back (they're hard to kill, in my experience), but eventually, it will get big again. You just have to prune it to the size/shape you'd like it to be. I can't remember when the best time to prune it is, though, whether you can still do this for the year without losing flowers... You might want to do a search. Good luck!

It's probably OK to still prune it now if you do this right away. Mine are just starting to leaf out, so now flowerbuds have formed yet. I prune mine every year in late Feb or early March to about four feet high. They are fine and well-behaved shrubs.

If yours have gotten so tall that there aren't any leaves or small branches down low, you probably do not want to prune them as low as mine. If you want them lower, you might try a series of successively lower prunings for the next several years, just cutting off some of the crown area where the leaves were last year. Perhaps that will force new leafy branches to form down lower so you can cut it a bit shorter the next year.

I had one at a previous house that was turned into a really nice tree form, and I liked it that way. My neighbor bought one trained as a tree from the nursery, and it's nice looking, too. I'm planning to grow a new one from a cutting off one of my double-flowered ones and turn that into a tree eventually, with a single trunk.

I will see about pruning it. As long as I know I won't kill it by pruning it. One more question. Is that one or several that were planted together. If I recall, it has different colored flowers when it blooms.

From your picture it looks to me like you have several shrubs planted in a grouping, possibly from volunteers that were allowed to go to seed. ROS are notorious for the amount of seedlings they produce. I don't see one main trunk, but several. Normally one shrub matures at 8-12 feet tall and 6-10 feet wide. Your picture shows something much wider than that.

The correct time to prune is late winter/early spring while the shrub is dormant. However, I've been known to hack away during the summer because the shrubs got out of control. (I share them on a fenceline with my neighbor.) Be forewarned though, if you do that you will sacrifice many of the flowers, but no harm will be done to the shrub. ROS blooms in mid to late summer, so it sets its flower buds on the current season's new growth. I agree with stevation - if you're going to prune, do it ASAP. ROS can take a hard pruning, so chop away. It will be a much healthier shrub and reward you with tons more flowers in the coming years.

Some varieties, like 'Diana' are sterile, thank God, so no blue million seedlings.

That looks like several trees to me and like the others said, it's probably from the lack of care over the years. I hope the pruning helps it!

We started to plant ROS along the property line a few years back. My in-laws had quite a few little starts that they gave us. Each year, I have let my flowers go to seed in hopes that we get more starts so I can continue to hide from the neighbors. I hear how ROS have all these seedlings and I have yet to see one! I'm hoping this year we'll get just a couple at least! I have a few more feet of ground that I need to cover! LOL

Rose of Sharon blooms on new wood, so keeping that in mind would help determine how much you would like to prune. I cut my Diana back each spring to maintain a 6' size. She sure is beautiful!

I cut my bush Rose of Sharon back by 1/3 to 1/2 each year, usually in mid to late April. I also have one 3-4 foot standard Rose of Sharon on which I cut the flowering branches back each year to 8 inches. I deliberately keep mine very small because my garden is so small. You can pretty much do what you want with them as far as size goes. The only thing they won't tolerate is a lot of winter wet.

Mine are just starting to bud out now. If you cut yours back right now, you should have no problems getting lots of blooms later on this summer. I agree with the rest, you have a little thicket of R of S, and they are probably different varieties, although in the last couple of years I have seen some grafted 3 variety R of S bushes for sale here.

Mollydog, I just planted a Diana this spring. Its about 3 ft. tall. Think it will bloom for me this year?

I clip mine back in April. I have taken them down from 10ft to 3 ft only to have amazing blooms that summer. It seems like they love to be prunned. Use a very sharp pair of clippers and I clip just above the nicest buds.

Here is a link that might be useful: How To Prune Rose of Sharon