My neighbor has the plain ones along our property line, some of them are now in our yard and are a pain.. They show up all over the yard and garden. Would not mind yours, they are gorgeous. Well, I kept some of them anyway for the hummers.

Normally the Rose of sharon have begun to bloom by now. Instead my 'Blue Satin' Rose of sharon tree form has, only in the last week, begun to set a few fairly good sized bloom buds. Most likely the setback in bloom timing on my RoS is due to the stress it suffered over our Easter freeze. The same can be seen with our local crape myrtles which mostly have seemed to be set back a couple weeks from their normal beginning bloom burst. For me, the sluggish bloom burst for my 'Blue Satins' has been helpful though. This year, since my RoS tree has managed to leaf out with new branch growth, which hardened off before the blooming began, I was able to take some cuttings and root them. Last year I had tried to do that, but those cutting failed due to my RoS blooming almost before the new growth branches had even hardened off. I can tell that the four cuttings I stuck in potting soil and set under the east side canopy of my mature Scarlet Oak tree are now just beginning to root. With our almost entire month of June's daily rain events they are showing promise that they now are well on their way to developing good root systems. I am very happy that ,now even if some of the potted Blue Satins I purchased from the nursery last week turn out to be mislabeled, and different cultivars, I can be assured that at least my 4 cuttings, which have rooted for me will truely be my 'Blue Satin' cultivar that I like so much.

I can't answer about the spruce trees but I have a half dozen large Rose of Sharons in my yard that are currently covered in blooms. The hummingbirds are all over them all the time to the point of ignoring the feeders that are nearby.

Much of the same. My cardio is really also a spy mission - one mile each way to the mailbox to mail seed trades and spy on some gardeners several blocks away. I'm going to be collecting seeds, watering a bit, and admiring all the new to me plants that are blooming right now. Lovely!