Planting Rose of Sharon & Other Hibiscus Flowers
By midfall, most plants have stopped flowering. However, if you’d like an autumn bloomer, look no further than the hardy hibiscus and beautiful Rose of Sharon. Discover varieties of hibiscus flowers and planting tips!
Rose of Sharon
Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) is one of my favorite late summer shrubs. Hardy hibiscus is so tough the plant will come back year after year as far north as zone 5. In the same family (Malva) as hollyhocks, mallows, and okra, this hibiscus can have single, double, or semi-double blossoms in a wide range of colors including true blue—a rare color in the flower world. If you need a shot of blue to contrast with all the autumn yellows and golds, look for ‘Blue Bird’, ‘Azurri Blue Satin’, or ‘Blue Chiffon’.
Forming a multi-stemmed shrub that can grow to be 8 to 12 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide, they can be planted 10 to 12 feet apart to make a colorful hedge. If you prefer a standard tree-shape, the extra stems can be carefully pruned out to give it that appearance. Since they flower on new wood do any pruning early in the season to give the plant a chance to recover and regrow new branches. They require full sun to produce the most blossoms but will still bloom in light shade. They prefer moist, well-drained soil and love hot summers. Fertilize in the spring with some compost and mulch around the base to keep the soil moist.
To encourage bigger blossoms, you can pinch off the extra buds, leaving only 2 to 3 per branch but I’d go for quantity over size any day.
Luckily this is one plant that is not attractive to deer but the migrating butterflies and hummingbirds love it!
Note: Rose of Sharon is considered an invasive in some parts of the country. To avoid the excessive seedlings that cause this problem, look for a sterile cultivar that doesn’t produce any seeds.
Hibiscus moscheutos
If you want to grow some really huge blossoms, look for Hibiscus moscheutos. Most of them have blooms that are easily 10 inches across. Talk about dinner-plate size! Though these giant satiny flowers look tropical, the plants are hardy as far north as zone 4. Unlike Rose of Sharon, they die back to the ground each year but make up for it with an amazing amount of growth over the summer, eventually reaching 3 to 4 feet tall. They can be slow to emerge in the spring, so be patient.
We grew a variety called ‘Southern Belle’ from seed, but there are many other hardy hibiscus to choose from. If you want to attract hummingbirds try ‘Cranberry Crush’ or ‘Midnight Marvel’. Both have irresistible red flowers.
The flowers only last for a day or two but there are many buds coming along to prolong the show.
Some varieties have the added feature of red, maroon, or copper-colored leaves to add to the drama.
I just planted one called ‘Cherry Brandy’ that has green leaves with a red blush.
Planting Hibiscus
If you’re planting in the fall, here’s how to plant a container-grown plant bought at a nursery:
- Dig the hole in your garden twice size of root ball of plant.
- Mix the soil you dug out of the hole with mulch or compost.
- Take the plant carefully from container, keeping a hand on the bottom of the plant.
- Lower the plant gently into the hole, centering carefully.
- Backfill the hole with your soil/mulch mixture.
- In the fall, we don’t usually add fertilizer as we don’t want to encourage the plant to grow.
- Build a little well around the plant for the water.
- Tap the soil around the plant gently.
- Water in your plant with a nice drink.
- The plant will rest quietly all winter, awake in spring, and flower by mid-summer!
If you would like to add an exotic touch to your late summer garden look no further than the hardy hibiscus.
More Tropical Flowers
Love the look of tropical flowers? Another colorful tropical plant is canna. A tropical bulb canna is hardy in zones 7 to 11, cannas boast super-sized leaves and showy stalks of yellow, red, salmon, orange, pink, or bi-colored flowers that bloom in mid to late summer. Easy to grow, canna also attracts butterflies and hummingbirds! See the Almanac’s Canna Growing Guide.
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When you say full sun, would that be morning sun or afternoon sun? Afternoon is much fiercer than morning and some plants cannot tolerate harsh afternoon sun.
An established shrub can take full afternoon sun, but freshly planted ones should be monitored and watered adequately if planted in full afternoon sun.
I also have some Brugs that are new to me and this is their 2nd year. Two of them have not bloomed yet for me. For one of my 2nd year Brugs I finally have multiple blooms growing ghis year. I am so excited. I also was able to purchase a new Brug from a nursery and it also multiple flowered for me. They were all treated the same and all had the same amount of sun. I really think it's the luck of the draw. We'll see what happens next year.
PS all of my brugs are in large pots and I bring them inside for winter. I live in Nova Scotia
My Rose of Sharon shrubs, I have three in a row, are at least twenty feet tall, and profusely bloom mid-July through August, by mid September the last few blooms stop. So never have they bloomed a single flower in Autumn. I would also add, that I too have a trumpet vine, as the first commenter, that was given to me twenty years ago at least, that is so invasive, it has shoots coming up every where. I can not rid my property of it, nor chop it down, without it coming back even more aggressive. Here in lies the rub; it, nor any of the hundreds of offshoots, have ever bloomed one trumpet flower, ever. So, there must be something too this, issue of non flowering trumpet vines. I can not find, any solution, that will work, and make them flower.
My two rose of sharon trees struggle yearly to bloom. They were pruned into tree shape since I got them five years ago. I've kept the shape and tried pruning down to a couple buds in early spring to keep them small and perhaps get the buds to open by having less of them. But the tree grows four or more feet even after pruning. The flowers are doubles, which makes them very heavy when they don't open. Each year, a few more will open, but it's still mostly closed buds. This season, I skipped pruning and will see what happens. My hardy hibiscus, however, is ten years old and sits in the center of my front garden. Now at its full size, it's about 4 ft by 4 ft each summer by the time blooms form. Pretty much zero maintenance. Cut it to the ground after the first freeze, remove some of the faded blooms to keep it pretty during the bloom time, which usually lasts three to four weeks in late July through August. Yes, it takes time in the spring to get growing but by the end of May it's green enough to start looking good and fills in nicely with lovely foliage as a backdrop to annuals and other perennials. I highly recommend them for anyone with the space in full sun.
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