I have a six-year-old Rose of Sharon (small, patio tree) in my garden that's looking distressed. We had a hard winter this past year, and one dead branch had to be pruned. It's blooming like always, but it looks different than usual... the leaves are small and scanty this year, so the branches look mostly bare.
Any thoughts or advice? Is this a normal reaction to a harsh winter? Will it gradually perk up on its own, or do I need to do something for it?
Q: Rose of Sharon blooming, but leaves are scanty
I think I'd try a solution of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) which seems to be beneficial for stressed leaves on many deciduous plants. Won't hurt to try it. The leaves already there won't increase in size but if the color intensifies you'll know the plant benefitted. Here's an interesting article about mgnesium and sulfur in the garden:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/fertilizeepsomsalts
This message was edited Jun 20, 2007 10:35 AM
ds, look closely at the leaves and see if you see bugs or ants on them.If you see ants, the problem is likely aphids. I had horrible problems with mine. The leaves looked stippled/speckled and smaller than normal. It had tons of buds, but the blooms wouldn't open. Once they are stressed, they're more prone to insect and disease problems.They can have canker, aphids, bacterial leaf spot, etc. Here's a link that will help diagnose the problem. I hope this helps you figure out what's wrong.
http://hort.ufl.edu/trees/HIBSYRA.pdf
Thanks Yuska and Crowelli. I keep epsom salts around for baths, so I'll try that. My tree (my whole garden, in fact) usually has small black ants roaming around, but they don't seem to damage anything. My tree is covered with full, open flowers; it's just half-naked as far as the leaves go. Very strange. The leaves that are there seem smaller than usual.
Plants in our area are still recovering from the drought we've finally come out of (yahoo to that!). Rose of Sharons *love* a wet spring, and it sounds like yours has put all of its energy into blooming, instead of leafing out. No doubt a good dose of organic fertilizer and a few more sunny days will help immensely.
Carla
I don't think the problem is due to a cold winter. Finding a few dead branches can be normal occurrence. I prune my Rose of Sharon that are small trees before they start producing leaves in the spring. I cut the branches back by about 1/3 and some 1/2 back.. I do this so that the production of leaves, stems and flowers (they are larger also) is increased. The plants becomes more full. I cut out any dead branches afte it leafs out some. Due to my Mother being critically ill, I did not have time to do this before the leaves budded out. The one by the patio looks as you have described yours looking.
Also, Rose of Sharon are prone to cotton root rot. I have lost at least 3 to this problem. I lost another one that I early loved this spring due the amount of rain, because it was in an area that did not drain well and because I had to water it a lot the past 3 years during the drought. The leaves turn yellow and the bloom buds will fall off with too much or too little water. They do best in acidic soil. Also, is it receiving less sunlight than it did in the past? When my oak trees grew a lot over the years and the Rose of Sharon were then in shade for a long period of time during the day, they became spindly and not very bushy. I have found that they do best with morning sun and afternoon filtered shade. They tend to wilt in full sun when it becomes really hot in August. Try the other suggestions above, give it some low nitrogen fertilizer. At the end of winter next year, prune it back. You will be glad that you did. If you prune it now, you will be losing a lot of the blooms; however, it will bloom later. In fact, .I have seen Rose of Shaon pruned as hedges.
I have gotten into the habit of creating a berm for each shrub or tree I plant. W/clay soil the plants just seem to thrive better. It doesn't have to be a large berm; just big enough to contain the roots of whatever you are planting and the plant gets good soil to begin with and the roots have a chance to multiply. Just a suggestion.
I also do that in my flower beds for each plant. Just a little soil goes a long way.
Ann
Thanks. It's possible that it's getting a little less sun this year since my baby peach tree nearby has shot up. Hm, not sure what I can do about that offhand, but maybe the peach tree can be moved. It's only been in the ground for a year, and I don't think its root system has dug in very deep since it still tends to "tilt" after heavy winds. :)
Hi, dsmorris. I don't have an answer for you, but I have a 15-year-old Rose of Sharon, and I live in the same city, so ours are being exposed to the same conditions.
I prune mine a lot and always have. (If we let it be the large V-shaped shrub it would like to be, it would completely block the back door.) Heavy pruning has never bothered it at all. One year we got serious and cut off two or three main branches, big enough to need the chain saw. But the tree barely blinked. So I would not think that yours should miss one branch.
It did not seem to be affected at all by either the drought, or this year's wet spring. Its foliage is the same as always. We've pruned off the usual small branches, and have the same mass of flowers (and bumblebees).
Not saying that yours couldn't be affected by those things, but they do seem to be very hardy once established. You might want to look another direction.