Call me crazy, but I'm looking at three Rose-of-Sharon to bonsai. Remember, many grow flowering trees and shrubs, not to conform with typical bonsai rules but to make a wide visual experience of "wall-of'flowers". If you can get the shrub to survive in a bonsai pot, prune and train it to be wide from the front and very narrow from the side, it just might be worth the experimentation. OR, just plant it along a fence and prune it the same way and get a yard shrub that makes a great flowering statement without taking up so much space. Jay

Here's some info I saved from this forum in 2005. Note that I'm the original poster (!). Too funny. ======================= Rose of Sharon (Althea) Posted by Love_the_Yard z9A Jax FL (My Page) on Sun, Aug 21, 05 at 23:26 Ambersky, Where did you plant your new double pink Rose of Sharon (althea)? I too bought one last week - also a double pink. The tag says "full to part sun". I've noticed a few posts that say they struggle with the heat here in Florida. I'm thinking about part shade. (It's on the screened-in porch in the shade righ now and actually seems pretty happy - haha!) What did you do? Carol Follow-Up Postings: RE: Rose of Sharon (Althea) Posted by: claferg z9a Volusia FL (My Page) on Mon, Aug 22, 05 at 10:42 My experience with Rose Of Sharon is part shade, or morning sun and afternoon shade. They seem to do very nicely in these situations. I have a single white, a double white and two single purples and they are doing great. I think the mistake most people who are unfamiliar with Rose of Sharon make is planting them in full sun like a hibiscus. Up north this is no problem, but here in Florida they really suffer during the hot months in full sun. RE: Rose of Sharon (Althea) Posted by: SnickerKitten Z9b FL (My Page) on Mon, Aug 22, 05 at 20:21 Mine gets sunlight filtered by some larger plants. She's come back from being a stick with a few yellow leaves to being full of lush dark green leaves and at last count, 2 blooms and 15 buds! Lori RE: Rose of Sharon (Althea) Posted by: SnickerKitten Z9b FL (My Page) on Wed, Aug 24, 05 at 14:41 Make that six absolutely gorgeous blooms! Lori RE: Rose of Sharon (Althea) Posted by: mistiaggie z10 FL (My Page) on Mon, Sep 12, 05 at 15:54 I have some "sticks" from cuttings that I've had for a year and they put out little bitty leaves and that's it. no new growth....maybe it's too hot here? RE: Rose of Sharon (Althea) Posted by: bruggirl100 z9 FL (My Page) on Mon, Sep 12, 05 at 19:15 I have one that has done absolutely nothing in 4 years. I think it's too hot, but then, I have it in full sun.

Hi Rhoni Ann, Lots of people are painting red/orangey-red brick homes nowadays. If you're a fan of the Fixer-Upper TV show on HGTV, you've probably noticed that Chip and Joanna Gaines have totally transformed the exterior of many brick homes by painting that red/red-orange brick in all sorts of lovely shades of gray, creamy white or beige. After they add new trim and sometimes shutters and window boxes (depending on the style of the home and the look they're going for), along with new landscaping, those homes look just as transformed on the exterior as they are on the interior. Keep in mind that once you paint your brick, assuming you are going with a lighter color, it will reflect heat and light, but I have found there are lots of plants which grow well on the hotter west and south sides of homes that what a person might expect. First of all, if you will amend your clay with compost or some other organic material before you plant, then your plants will do so much better that it will blow your mind and you won't have to water nearly as much. We have dense, thick red clay (the kind you could use to make clay pots) that had zero organic matter when I tested it when we moved here in 1999. When they dug the holes for our percolation test for our septic system when we built our house, most all of the water remained in the holes after 24-hours, which explains why we have a lagoon instead of leach lines. Along our south and west facing walls, cannas have done really well in only lightly amended clay. If you plant the tall ones that get 4-7' tall, they will form their own mini-wall along the bring wall, and they don't really mind the heat as long as you water them occasionally in summer. They die back in winter, but you can cut off the ugly dead foliage at the ground so you don't have to look at it all winter long. Cannas are very strong, resilient plants, fitting into my favorite category of plants that I describe in this manner: they won't die and you can't kill them. In front of those taller cannas, you could the short, compact evergreen shrubs of your choice so you'd have something green there year-round. Some of the shorter varieties of hollies would work, and hollies come with many different leaf shapes from the very small leaves of yaupon hollies to the larger leaves of other forms of holly. If you don't want evergreen shrubs on the west side of the house, you could plant daylilies, lantana, gomprena (aka globe amaranth), zinnias, cosmos and some perennial members of the salvia family. All of these do well in well-amended, well-draining soil and only need moderate amounts of water in summer as long as they are well mulched. Or, you could plant ground cover type plants that thrive in full sun. Purple wintercreeper is a lovely greenish groundcover that is low maintenance. We just cut ours back to the ground with the string trimmer once or twice a year. It turns purplish-green in the cold season. Its flowers are not very obvious but then they give you lovely little berries. Hollies, by the way, are one of my favorite plants for clay soil because once they are established many of them are really drought-tolerant as well as heat-tolerant. If you like crape myrtles they are very heat-tolerant and come in all sorts of sizes, from more tree-like forms that can attain 20-40' Crape Myrtle Trails--Varietiesin height to weeping forms only a couple of feet tall. Be sure to purchase named crape myrtles varieties so you can Google those varieties before you buy to ensure you're getting the right size for your area. Sometimes the ones sold at places like Wal-Mart don't give a variety name on the tag, so you have no idea what you're getting. There's nothing worse than planting a big variety of crape myrtle in an area that is only appropriate for a small to medium sized one because you'll spend tons of time trying to prune back the big one to keep it small enough. Depending on the color you ultimately choose to paint your brick, you might like some of the Black Diamond series of crape myrtles with their purplish-black foliage. They would look striking against a lighter colored wall and they don't get too large. To give you an idea of the many kinds of crape myrtles available, I'm going to link the page of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, TX, which is my favorite website for Crape Myrtle information. I haven't tried Rose of Sharon on the west side of the house, but it probably would be alright. I have several kinds of hardy hibiscus in the border around our large veggie garden and they are both heat tolerant and drought tolerant. They are growing in heavily amended clay in raised beds, but there's a couple of smaller ones at the lower north end of our heavily sloping garden and they are equally heat and drought tolerant, growing at grade level in soil only lightly amended. Another perennial flower (often considered a reseeding annual, but perennial in my garden) that doesn't mind the west side of a building is tall verbena, Verbena bonariensis. It is one of the most heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant plants I've ever grown and is a real butterfly magnet. I use lots of autumn sage (Salvia greggii) plants as they tolerate heat and plentiful sunshine. They are perennials and are semi-evergreen. Sometimes they bloom on and off throughout the winter here in zone 7b. I just shear them back pretty hard right before new growth begins in early Spring to keep them more compact and more manageable. There's tons of options for the west side of a house. Just avoid things like hydrangeas that must have afternoon shade in our climate and avoid plants that need perfect drainage. Good luck, and if you have more questions, I hope you'll ask them. Also, watch for the Master Gardener's plant sale in your county, which has a very active MG group that puts on a great plant sale in the Spring. This year's plant sale is May 11th. More info about it can be found on the website linked below. Pottawatomie County Extension Service Webpage The Master Gardeners have a display garden at the ag extension building and you might visit it to get some ideas. Dawn

Hi Steve, When I first saw the size difference in the first picture, I immediately thought of a virus, but I googled it, and canÂt find any indication at all that theyÂre susceptible to viruses. When I look at the second picture close up, the leaves and buds sure do look healthy (certainly not like they have a virus), but if you say theyÂre losing their shine compared to the other bushes, possibly underwatering is a problem. There are lots of houseplants that you can tell when to water them by watching for them to loose the shine on their leaves. Could there possibly be enough difference in the soil around that one to be making the difference? I ask that only because in my yard, I can dig into the soil in one spot and the soil (clay) is amazingly friable and really not bad at all to be planting in, BUT if I dig in to plant something just a foot away, the soil (same color clay) could be used on a potterÂs wheel! IÂve even had some hen & chicks IÂve had to dig up and IÂm "reviving" them in a pot right now because they just werenÂt making it in the soil they were in. Since the area where they were gets watered, I think it was just staying too wet for semps. I donÂt think itÂs very likely at all that your going to overwater the ailing bush! My neighbor has 3 rose-of-sharonÂs right on the other side of the fence from my tomatoesÂwhich get watered a LOT. Also, the end of that area is where one of the main house gutters comes down, and when we do get rain, the whole area gets really, really soaked. Usually thatÂs earlier in spring before the tomatoes are in! The only effect IÂve noticed it having on the neighborÂs bushes is that theyÂre growing like crazy (above the top of the fence now and starting to shade my tomatoes a little bit!), and when I dig in that area to turn over the veggie garden in spring, there are more and more and more of the hibiscus roots coming into my garden because they seem to really like the water there! So I wouldnÂt worry about giving them a really, really deep and slow soaking to see if it seems to make any difference. Good luck Skybird