Hi all, this is my first post to rec.gardens and I hope I can find some
advice. I have a rose of sharon that's about 7 years old and very healthy.
I prune it in late winter in the hope that it will grow more "tree-like".
But every summer the 'trunk' grows shoots. A lot of shoots. Can I safely
prune them now and how can I prevent them from growing back? Wrap the
trunk? Thanks in advance.

Spanking the plant won't help.

You can prune the branches now.

It will take some practice for you to figure how to prune it to grow the way
you want it to grow.

If you prune it like a hedge, it will only get bushier.


NokNokMan wrote in message
. net...
Hi all, this is my first post to rec.gardens and I hope I can find some
advice. I have a rose of sharon that's about 7 years old and very
healthy.
I prune it in late winter in the hope that it will grow more "tree-like".
But every summer the 'trunk' grows shoots. A lot of shoots. Can I safely
prune them now and how can I prevent them from growing back? Wrap the
trunk? Thanks in advance.

If you prune it like a hedge, it will only get bushier.

With more blooms in my experience. I trim mine back pretty hard to about 3 feet
every year... They are about 5 or 6 years old now, very compact with very nice
blooms.
Colleen
zone 5 Connecticut

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 04:38:57 GMT, "NokNokMan"
wrote:

Hi all, this is my first post to rec.gardens and I hope I can find some
advice. I have a rose of sharon that's about 7 years old and very healthy.
I prune it in late winter in the hope that it will grow more "tree-like".
But every summer the 'trunk' grows shoots. A lot of shoots. Can I safely
prune them now and how can I prevent them from growing back? Wrap the
trunk? Thanks in advance.


You can keep pruning it. It is the nature of some rose of sharon to
get bushy. Cutting off the top will trigger bottom shoots, stronger
trunks, and you'll have more blooms (although I hear that's not what
you want). Rose of Sharon blooms on this year stem growth and can
easily take regular pruning to whatever shape you want. They like
water and sun.