Rose of Sharon

I almost took this Rose of Sharon out last fall. It had been scrunched in behind the big Spanish broom for years, and was a strange, awkward shape as it tried desperately to reach for some sun behind the broom.

But I didn't take it out. Instead, I chopped it back to a woody frame about two feet high last March. 

Look at her now. 

She rebounded beautifully from the pruning job (called "rejuvenation pruning", but really I just hacked it to death.)

I have no idea what cultivar this is, but I like the red throated white blooms. Some Rose of Sharon plants flower in mauve or pinky blue hues, or lavender, which are not to my liking. This one looks elegant I think.

Elegant was not what I thought this plant was once the Spanish broom was gone. Contorted, twisted, old and overgrown, I thought it should come out. I asked Jeronimo, our irrigation installer / landscaper to chop it down and remove it.

He said "no, señora." 

I'm glad now he convinced me to keep it. The pruning job was all it needed. In spring it leafed out fully, and then set dozens and dozens of buds in July.

It's still recovering and not as flowery as it could be. But the form is upright, even tight up against the fence as it is. It's a tidy shape, which is a thing I value in my gardens.

Want to see what one could look like, left to spread out and in full sun with nothing around it? This Rose of Sharon, also a red throated white flowering variety, is in a hot dry spot in the parking lot at my local nursery.

It never fails to wow me when I pull in and park. The noonday light was terrible when I took this phone shot -- in real life this Rose of Sharon stuns.

Could my hacked to death recovering little Rose of Sharon, red and white and pretty, ever look like this one?

It could. But for now, I enjoy the blooms from afar, a subtle backdrop to the pompoms of the blanketflowers that have gone by around the birdbath. 

The finches love the blanketflower seedheads, and I watch them bob on the sturdy stems from the patio on cool summer mornings. And I marvel at my rejuvenated Rose of Sharon.