Jeanne,
WHy don't you just plant them outside?
The only reason I even planted ROS outside was to have the beautiful flowers outside and a very large plant for privacy also.
I grow tropicals inside because I am not in zone 9.
THeir flowers and foliage are wonderful and they bloom for me all winter off and on.
In the spring, May, I buy some tropicals and plant them outside also, but they will die in October, unless I bring them in.
(Some get so big, I can't carry them in)
In any case, good luck with your Rose of Sharon houseplant.
They are beautiful plants in or outside.

i have a very little small outside planting area & it's chock full of plants. I wanted to see if they would bloom all year round indoors (i tried this with 2 azaleas 3 years ago & they bloom every 3-4 months indoors :) they also kept their small size. i'm definitely going to try this indoors. thank you jeannie

Can I just jump in here with a quick question? I started some ROS seed that was given to me. They all came up. How big do these get and how fast do they grow? Now I have them I don't know where to plant them!Anybody out there with hte answer? It's probably a really dumb question! Thanks, Gladys

Gladys47,
just read your post.
Rose of Sharon are very slow to grow from seed.
They do not grow more than 12 to 18 inches a year.
It will take mabey til next summer if you are lucky to get a flower on one of them.
They generally are not a fast growing bush at all.
Some varieties grow a little bit faster than others, but I consider them slow growers compared to thier tropical cousines, which are much faster.
Plant them in full sun, they love it and can take the heat.
Good Luck.

Where every you plant them, plan on lots of seedlings. Even in their second year they can flower from seedlings and leave seeds behind. You probably have some flower buds in the branch already so you'll get blooms, which means lots of seeds.

These plants may take a longer time to grow but they are very winter hardy, drought resistant, flower readily and even flower really well in the shade. They flower profusely for over a month, sparsely before and after for a while.

My daughter has 2 thick rows of these on the west side of her house but on a dewy morning when they're all in bloom and the sun is somewhat shining out there somewhere, they have the most fairy tailish scene that I've ever seen. Just so unique and I'm not at all that kind of a dreamy kind of person. The purple with pink eyes blend their colors in many of the flowers. Buds to.

I so liked the them I plucked out tree sized ones and moved them to my own yard so my granddaughter would always have them around. I to, have to find a better place then where they're at.

But oh, those seedlings. You can get your hands on a weed preventing mat eventually, but while it's small just remove spent flowers. An OK privacy hedge as well, but not until early June or so around here.

-Sandy