rose of sharon (hibiscus syriacus)

Can you propagate from a twig? My DH loves a specific pink Rose of Sharon that he sees on his way to work and I can't seem to find it anywhere. Before I beg strangers for a branch, I'd like to have a plan! Help!

I can't help you with the twig rooting but I do know that they self seed rather abundantly. We always have volunteers in the spring because they give off soooo many seeds and the seeds germinate quite easily. I'd grab a couple seed pods later this year. This is a picture of one of my 'Rose of Sharon'

I rooted 2 this spring, I dipped the cuttings in root tone then put them in a jar of water and both had good roots in a few weeks.

That's great news! I fail easily at seeds and at the rate Rose of Sharons grow here, I may have died before it would have grown to a good size! Now I'll go rehearse some pleading in front of a mirror and see how pathetic I can look. Maybe lots of compliments will work, too.

I simply stick a cutting (with only 2-3 leaves) in a soda bottle full of water, place it on my northern exposure kitchen window sill and wait. Once calloused they put out roots.

With over 20 cuttings in the last year I've lost 3 and 2 of those were from the same plant and in the same bottle.

Forgot to add - I try to stay with only fresh wood cuttings. Started one with some semi-hardwood on it a couple days ago. Curious to see how well it works.

This message was edited Aug 19, 2004 1:08 PM