When it comes to beauty, very few things can compete with a rose of sharon in full bloom. The only flowers that I can compare with it is the wisteria or maybe orchids. Rose of sharon is actually a name given to a group of flowering shrubs or trees, each with its own characteristic color flower. They are deciduous and are late bloomers. So, a rose of sharon would continue to uplift your garden’s aesthetics where other flowers would fail. They add long lasting, vibrant and summer-y color to a garden without much fuss. The large, showy and beautiful flowers attract other beautiul things like butterflies.
The good news about this beautiful flowering plant is that it is very easy to grow. It requires quite a lot of sunlight and so should be planted in an open space. Rose of sharon blooms on new wood and so pruning the old wood is essential if you want to see more of that exquisite beauty.
Also, pruning is essential in order to keep the flower from blooming everywhere. This beautiful plant is something like wisteria. It holds profoundly exquisite beauty yet terrorizes too much area if not dealth with. It has to not be left unattended to make sure it does not wreak havoc in its surroundings with its divine beauty. However, pruning rose of sharon can be a little tricky
There is no one answer to the question “how to prune rose of sharon”. A lot of things need to be considered in order to reach a meaningful conclusion. To save you the trouble of reading through hundreds of articles and watching dozens of videos, this stepwise guide will show you exactly what you need to know in order to prune your rose of sharon properly!
Effective Tips To Prune Rose of Sharon
Before you start pruning your rose of sharon, there is one important piece of advice which needs to be mentioned early on. Don’t prune your plants with a rough and dirty shear. It would cause viruses and diseases to manifest in the plant and all your efforts would go to waste. You should always use clean, sharp shears when pruning any of your plants. As much as possible, you want to cut them cleanly. You do not want to get a messy cut as that tears the fibers of the stems and does not encourage new growth. It does more harm than good.
With that being said, let’s take it one step at a time.
When to Prune?
Pruning of rose of sharon can usually be done at three times of the year: late fall or winter after leaves fall, early spring before formation of buds or late summer after blooming.
Pruning time depends on the goal which you are after. If you want to get rid of overgrown rose of sharon then pruning in winter is for you. But if you want to increase the number of blooms and get a bushier plant, you should go for spring pruning. Summer pruning is for people who are afraid of the ability of rose of sharon to take over your property in a few years.
When it comes to the timeline of when to prune rose of sharon, it is nice to know that the plant is not fussy about it. It will not necessarily die when pruned at a wrong time, because there really is not a wrong time. It is just important to remember the key time periods when pruning has certain effects to the plant. Spring pruning encourages blooms and growth. Fall pruning prevents overgrowth. And winter pruning for shaping the plant.
How to prune rose of sharon can have a different answer depending on the time of pruning. So, each will be discussed in detail below.
Fall or Winter Pruning: Rejuvenation Pruning Rose of Sharon
Rose of sharon blooms on new wood and hence you can cut back the old wood in order to facilitate the growth of new wood from the nodes and prevent overcrowding. Rejuvenation pruning rose of sharon can have a significant impact on the number of blooms you will get.
Prune all the stems back to second node from the ground when the plant has shed leaves and entered dormancy. You could remove the crisscrossing branches further down to prevent shading. Also, look for damaged branches and cut them to the ground too. You don’t want liabilities when it comes to rose of sharon. If your plant is overgrown, don’t cut more than one third at a time unless you want to kill it.
Can I Cut Rose of Sharon to Ground
A big mistake that people often make when rejuvenation pruning rose of sharon is that they cut the stems all the way to the ground, without looking out for nodes. This leads to the death of the plant because growth of the plant only occurs from the nodes. However, you can cut a few unwanted stems to the ground to shape your plant. So, you shouldn’t cut rose of sharon to ground if you want your plant to regrow in the coming season.
Spring Pruning
Spring Pruning is all about boosting the bloom of rose of sharon. Before the bud formation, the stems are pruned back by a few inches to focus the attention of the plant towards bud formation. Also, any dead or diseased branches are removed.
You could pinch off the rose of sharon from the top to make the plant bushier and wider. This can dramatically increase the number of booms in the coming season. However, don’t prune too late in the spring or early summer as this can decrease the blooming and the new growth would be vulnerable to the frost.
Late Summer Pruning: How to Deadhead Rose of Sharon?
Rose of Sharon is a vigorous self-seeder. Those huge seed pods below the blooms are not there for show only. If those seeds touch the ground, there is not much doubt that they would germinate. To prevent the invasion of rose of sharon in your garden, you need to know how to dead head rose of sharon. Deadheading is the practice of removing the blooms and seed pods to prevent the massive onslaught of rose of sharon.
When the flowers of rose of sharon are done blooming, remove the blooms to literally ‘nip the evil in the bud’. You need to remove the flower plus the developing seed pods near the base of the flower in order to control the plant. You should be quick as rose of sharon drops those seed bombs as soon as the pods mature in a few weeks after withering. So dead head the plant before that.
Aside from ensuring that the shrub does not spread fast like a wildfire, deadheading the withered flowers helps you control its beauty. You don’t want withered flowers marring the rest of the plant’s appearance.
Other Important Tips
It is important to remember these following tips to better care for your rose of sharon shrubs. Younger shrubs can truly profit from light trimming. Older shrubs can handle more strenuous branch cutting, it is one way to prevent them from overspreading. Annual pruning of a rose of sharon shurb may be in order to keep the shrub in a controlled and aesthetic shape.
Another important part of pruning rose of sharon plants is the removal of older, inner branches of the shrub that disrupts air circulation and sunlight reception for the younger branches of the plant. The insides of the plant may be crowded with older and thicker branches.
Conclusion
Rose of sharon, due to its late blooming and epic beauty, is a special addition to every garden. It is a fairly resilient plant so even if you don’t go through the trouble of pruning rose of sharon regularly, you would see those late summer blooms. However, if you want to have a healthy and long-lasting plant, pruning is essential.
Pruning of rose of sharon can seem to be a daunting task at first. However, it’s well worth the effort. You should be able to sense the needs of your plant. How to prune rose of sharon is more of a question of the needs of a plant. If your plant is relatively younger, you should not go for anything extreme and only light pruning could be done. If it’s an old plant which needs a lot of pruning, then you may look for rejuvenation pruning or anything of that sort.
In the end, it all comes down to your ability to understand your plant and make rational decisions. Don’t worry, this easy-to-follow guide will make you acquainted with essential pruning knowledge to help you in this journey!
