Flowers to heavy for Lucy Red Rose of Sharon Tree.

9 years ago

Hi, I have a question regarding a Rose of Sharon tree that I bought about a week ago. The tree is a Lucy Red and it's over 6' tall. When I bought the tree I notice it had a lot of buds that were ready to blossom and the tree had a vase shape to it. About 2 days ago some of the buds started to blossom and the branches where the flowers were started to weep from the heavy flowers. I'm not sure of this is normal or if I should tie the branches together. This is my question about my tree. Should I tie the branches together to promote the stems to grow upwards or should I let it be? We had a decent storm yesterday so before I tied the stems together very loosely to prevent damage if any? Any info on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Comments (6)

User
9 years ago
Cal,
Rose of sharon don't grow like your tree.
It was staked and pruned to grow like that, it is a bush, not a tree really.
By staking it like that, you are encouraging it to be weak, it has support and it has to learn to grow the strength to stand by itself.
Take all the stakes out from around it.
It's too big to be staked like that.
Let it stand on its own as soon as possible.
If the flowers droop let them droop.
As soon as the heavy winds are over, unstake that bush and leave it alone. DONT FERTILIZE it til next year if you have to.
Hopefully it will root in fast for you, and mulch it good in the winter.
Nurseries fertilize the shrubs to the point of ruining them so that they grow tall fast, but the growth is weak rather than strong if it had grown on its own. So give it a couple of years with no fertilizer at all.
Gutzmek
9 years ago
Butterfly4u,

My personal opinion is I see a good pruning in you future next spring. Like any plant, they become "leggy" from environmental things. Light, nutrition, soil, etc... Some varieties will display "weeping" tendencies, but the photo tells me different IMHO.

Ed
Gutzmek
9 years ago
Lol. Looks like I was posting when Butterfly was. The message was for Cal, and I think there is some valuable info in Butterfly's post!

Ed
Cal_00
Original Author
9 years ago
Sorry for the late thanks, my internet has been going on and off for the last few days. Thanks for the info Butterfly and Gutz, I've done what you guys suggested and let it take it's own course. I'm also not going to fertilize for a year and will mulch around it later on this month or next. I'm going to finish planting before I start laying fabric and mulch. Thanks again.
edlincoln
9 years ago
Rose of Sharon wants to be a big multi-trunked bush. You can make it into a tree with pruning, but branches that bend over is a normal problem. My Mom's Rose of Sharon had=to be pretty much permanently staked.
wally_1936
9 years ago
They also start easily from cuttings so do not waste those you prune off, share with friends or create a lot of little plants.