Good morning,

I'm new to this board and web-site but have tried to garden for several years. How this wonderful site ever appeared on my monitor, I'll never know.

This rose of sharon was here when we moved in this house so we don't know how old it is. It was in pretty sorry shape 5 years ago and through a lot of TLC, we finally got it to blooom two years ago. It hasn't grown much and is only about 3 or 4 feet tall.

Last year I noticed it's bark was breaking off around the bottom of the trunk where two plants intertwined. Before the summer was over nearly all the bark was gone and the split started. I had my husband put a brace around it and we tied it down.

This year, the split is all the way down to the root. The bark is gone but it's leafing out like there's nothing wrong. Plus, there's all kinds of capillaries on top of its soil.

Do I dare dig it up and replant it? Build up it's bed area by adding more soil?

Thanks for any information you can give me.