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david52_gw

Rose of Sharon issue

david52 Zone 6
12 years ago

At the front gate, in prominent display, I have 5 eight-foot high Rose of Sharon bushes. For the last two-three years, they have increasing trouble leafing out in the summer - some branches do, and some don't. Cuttings from these plants that are elsewhere around all seem to do fine, just not these ones.

So, I water them normally, and my question here is: what would you suspect? Some bug thing? I don't see any obvious signs.

{{gwi:1209356}}

Boy, is this photo-sharing thing cool.

Check out these Salvia:

Comments (11)

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    12 years ago

    First guess: old attack of armored scale weakened it. Second guess: too-dry winters used stored carbohydrate.

    Dan

  • digit
    12 years ago

    David, I know nothing about Rose of Sharon.

    I thought maybe you included a picture that would be worth looking at.

    The diagnosis can be in other hands but you didn't disappoint me with the salvia picture.

    Steve

  • david52 Zone 6
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Ach, Steve, the first picture is not the kind of effort that wins a Pulitzer prize. It's supposed to show what the bushes look like, some stems full of leaves, the rest just skeletons, with maybe a few bitty leaf starts. I'm using the 'still' function on a way-older video camera, so we're technologically limited on that end. On the plus side, now I have a plausible reason to get a decent digital camera!!!!

    Dan, I looked on the stems pretty closely, and I don't see anything that looks like google pics of scale. Or anything out of the ordinary, but I'm no expert.

    I may spray them with dormant oil and see if it helps. Would a systemic pesticide work better? This is pretty far away from where the food garden is, and my strict organic farming resolve weakens pretty easily when it comes to saving a plant from dying.

  • dsieber
    12 years ago

    Time to get some new plants. Sorry.

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    12 years ago

    Agreed, efforts at rejuvenation may be wasted. Colo is not their ideal habitat.

    Dan

  • david52 Zone 6
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    When I first moved here, I bought one of those stupid "instant flowering hedges" things for $4.98, and there arrived the source of my Rose of Sharon. I grew it out, the flowers were pretty, so I made 50-odd cuttings and planted them all around the border. (I live on the corner of two fairly busy roads). Now these cuttings are all going gang-busters, no problems at all. Its just 4 or 5 plants together up by the front gate, in a rather prominent position. I could cut them down, but this is a lot of work - they're pretty big. And then I'd have to come up with something to put in their place.

    I will try spraying the things first. They're alive, the twigs aren't dead wood.

    So far today, we had to deal with a gopher who decided smack in the middle of the front lawn was a great place to homestead, then broke an irrigation riser by tugging on the hose too hard getting it to the gopher, and helping distant family member edit a grant proposal.

    Off we go......

  • steviewonder
    12 years ago

    Hmmm... I'm wondering since they are all together and close to the front gate if they might have got some sidewalk salt on them this winter?

    Steviewonder

  • david52 Zone 6
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Steviewonder, thats a possibility I hadn't considered. This is out in the county, no sidewalks, but they do salt the intersection, and I do get the run-off.

    But even on the same plant, half the branches are fine, the other half with no leaves, but still alive. I sprayed them with a systemic the other day which should deal with borers and scale and what not. But if they don't pick up in a few weeks, out they go.

  • dsieber
    12 years ago

    Someone posted that they do not do well in CO. They may have something there. I had 5 that positively thrived in humid Upstate New York(cold and snowy in the winter so that is not the factor). They were over 6ft tall after 3 years. Early in the summer I gave them a surface trim to encourage additional blooms (sort of like mums, and it worked). Although just when blooming there they were Jap. Beetle magnets!!! We planted 2 in Co and they did not perform as well. My guess it is the the summer time humidity vs temp is the factor. Road Salt could have gotten them since one of mine in NY died due to that.

  • TulsaRose
    12 years ago

    David, have you actually cut back some of the bare branches and seen green wood? I ask because I had a lot of die-back damage on some of my older Rose of Sharon's from our harsh winter. They don't stand up well to temps below 20f. As I pruned out the bare limbs, they were definitely dead. Most of them were dead back to the main trunk. Plus three entire shrubs were completely dead.

    I've grown Rose of Sharon for twenty years and never had this happen before.

    Rosie

    Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Care Guides

  • david52 Zone 6
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    The branches on these plants aren't totally bare, the leaves are coming out, but just barely, and stay that way now for weeks. And some branches are full, on the same plant, and one of the bushes in the back is just fine.

    I have no idea what this is. Reading around, this bush is marginal for the environment, but it seems to have done ok here now for 10+ years.

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