Pruning Rose of Sharon Plants
How to Prune Hibiscus syriacus
Easy tips for pruning rose of Sharon plants. How to prune Hibiscus syriacus into different shapes. Turning rose of Sharon shrubs into beautiful trees. How to rejuvenate an old, overgrown Althea bush.
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Late winter or early spring is the proper time to prune these summer and fall bloomers.
Thin out any crowded stems at the base. Remove all dead, weak, and crossing wood at the base or cut it back to an outward facing node.
To encourage the rose of Sharon bush to produce larger flowers, cut stems back to 2 buds. This will also keep the plant short--a rose of Sharon shrub as opposed to a tree.
When growing Hibiscus syriacus as a hedge, it will perform better when cut back with loppers than if you shear it with a hedge trimmer.
How to Rejuvenate an Overgrown Rose of Sharon Bush
This rose of Sharon bush is growing in my Aunt Charlotte's Connecticut back yard.
She maintains the natural vase shape of the plant by making only thinning cuts (removing the entire stem) and removing dead, broken or crossing stems each spring before the plant breaks dormancy.
The plant at the top of this page is maintained in a more rounded shape by the use of heading cuts (shortening the stems).
When pruning rose of Sharon, heading the stems back makes the shrub grow bushier and wider. It also gives you more growing tips which will produce more flowers.
You can give an old, overgrown shrub a new lease on life by pruning one third of the oldest main stems to the ground each spring for 3 years.
After the third year, you will have a refreshed, more compact, better flowering shrub.
In subsequent years, prune the rose of Sharon plant according to the instructions at the top of this page.
To Convert a Bush into a Rose of Sharon Tree
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Pruning Rose of Sharon bushes into trees is easy.
Start by cutting all but the main stems you want to keep to the ground. You can leave just one main stem or make a multistemmed tree with 3 trunks.
Once you've decided which stems you want to form your tree's trunk and eliminated all others, limb up the remaining stems to where you want the tree's canopy to begin.
Now, all you have to do to maintain the tree form is remove any new stems that pop up from the ground and rub off new shoots growing below the tree's canopy.
Clip back wayward stems growing from the rose of Sharon tree's crown at any time of year to keep it symmetrical.
Buy Rose of Sharon Bushes
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More Hibiscus Growing Info:
'Lord Baltimore' Hibiscus: Hardy Dinner Plate TypeHibiscus mutabilis, the Confederate Rose
Rose of Sharon Bush: Tropical Flowers on a Hardy Shrub
Lower Your Blood Pressure by Drinking Hibiscus Tea
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