Looks like Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus. More of a shrub than a tree, it has big decorative flowers in late summer when not much else is in bloom. On the down side most of them seed around like crazy. On the whole a nice plant, and very easy to take care of. WW

did you take it from a shady nursery ... and slam it into full blinding sun which is also reflected by a blinding white wall ... when you buy a new plant.. you need to HARDEN IT OFF to new sunlight .... so i suspect transport shock ... and i agree.. the pot itself.. at a min.. needs to be shaded ... never forget.. you can have a pot in full shade.. and the plant in sun ... the black pot itself.. can heat ridiculously in sun ... and it will.. for lack of a better term.. bake off the water.. before the plant can use it ... i would move it to full but bright shade for a while.. and maintain perfect water ... i jsut came fromt eh garden clinic forumn.. so my answer is in that flavor ... lol .. but .... we still dont have an Id.. but if it end up a houseplant.. there is a good forum for such ... ken ps: looks like fresh media.. did you transplant it .. and then throw it out in full sun.. add transplant shock ... always give a repotted plant.. a week or two.. to get the roots pumping.. before you take it back into full sun ....

Yes, it is staked but that could be because someone didn't know what it was and thought it was an intentional planting. Particularly since the stake doesn't look like a proper garden stake but some sort of broom handle. Or maybe decided to leave a volunteer and grow it up as a standard. The flowers look like female ones and an intentional planting would probably be of a male tree for the silvery catkins. I don't know of any S caprea which are suitable for a small garden here except the weeping Kilmarnock willow and this isn't that. I suppose this could be the graft stock of a Kilmarnock which has grown out although Kilmarnock is a male tree. S caprea just isn't a widely planted garden tree in the UK. But they are very common as inblown seedlings. Perhaps our friend in Stroud will come back with some more clues.

We have some of these in our back 40, so I rarely see them, but they make large trees if they survive the wood borers. The flowers have a nice aroma, and the birds like the dark bluish berries that form. In our neighborhood, the old guy who taught me about the trees here on our propertly called it woolly buckthorn or gum tree. It is known by many different nicknames. Oddly, one sprouted near our chicken coop too, likely planted by a bird, and we just saw it off at the ground about once a year. It slowly resprouts and sends out new shoots, but I can't let it grow there because it would block the walk-in door to the coop. Out back where we have left them alone, the slowly form an ever-enlarging thicket over time. They aren't picky about soil (ours are in dense, red clay) and tolerate drought (2011 didn't even kill them). Dawn