Are you sure there is only one trunk coming out of the ground? I bought one several years ago that was supposed to be double lavender. It had two trunks. One plant is lavender and the other is the double deep pink (so called red). I do know that some of the mail order nurseries (i.e., Burgess, Henry Fields, Four Seasons)advertise grafted altheas with different colored blooms on one bush. I would guess you may have one of these.

Rose of Sharon (H. syriacus) is a woody shrub, and quite hardy. These often have very fertile seeds and you can end up with a forest of seedlings coming up near their parents if you're not vigilent. Many folks don't like them due to this "weedy" aspect. There are much improved modern varieties available. I've been especially pleased with the hybrid 'Diana' that was a USDA release several years ago. No seeds and very large, flat white flowers and blooms 'til frost. It is easily started from cuttings during the late summer. The hardy herbaceous hibiscus is H. mosheutos or one of it's many hybrids and varieties. I'm not sure if any of this species can tolerate Z4-5 winters, even with a heavy mulch. The evergreen tropical hibiscus that you see in Florida, Hawai`i and other warm areas is H. sinensis. These will not tolerate cold.

Hi Mary-Jane, How much sunlight, water and fertilizer does the plant get? I started some seed very late in the season last year (July or August). They grew to about 3"-4" before first frost. This year they came up early, then got nipped by that strange spring cold-snap. Most of them are back up to about 6" now, with one outstanding individual at 15" and growing. I don't expect to see blooms until next year on any of them. They get East and West sun, are in average garden soil, receive water about once a week (when the soil dries down an inch from the surface) and I fed them with an 8 week time released bloom-booster fertilizer twice this year. My past experiences with rose of sharon hibiscus has been, on average, about two to three years from seed to bloom but that was in a warmer climate, Zone 8-9. I don't know if that will hold true in colder climates, like zone 5-6 that I'm living in now. I wouldn't expect that you'd have to wait longer than 3-4 years under good to fair growing conditions, then again, some plants have other ideas, lol. Regards, Dan

Hey - to me, I don't think they are ripe. I think they need to be left on the parent plant until the pods turn brown and open up. You could try planting the seeds you have ... by cracking open the pod and then planting the seeds inside. At my old house we had about 15 mature rose of sharon bushes and my dad and I would have to go out in the winter and clip off the dried out seed pods because when they would open, if there was a strong gust of wind, the seeds were all over the ground... and left some not so nice suprises the next spring when we had thousands of seedlings coming up ... but that was because we had so many ROS. Anyways, if I were you, I would possibly try some of those individual seeds, if those do not work, in fall when leaves are coming off the trees, ask your friends to check out all of their pods... a lot should be brown and dried out... that is when we've always had great luck with seeds. If you can get some then, I would store them and then plant them the following spring unless you have means to store them inside over the winter. Anyone else agree/disagree? God Bless, Matt