Okay, here's why I'm looking next at "how do I properly trim these back?"





They're clearly too big for the space. Pretty, but too big.

The limbs that are growing over the hand rail by the steps can be cut back now without damage. Other than that, cut it back as far as you want in February/March.

You can cut it back any time, but if it starts to grow branches again, and you get hit with a freeze, it can cause damage.

They are harder than Hell to kill. I have taken 3 down to the ground and had to spray the "sprouts" with RoundUp several times to kill them off because cutting them to ground level wouldn't kill them

Rose of Sharon is a common and loved plant in the south going back generations. Everyone I know Granny had at least one in her yard.

Often called Althea here.

I have a few, both purple and white.

Yes. They are misplaced IMO. A lot of folks plant either of these two large shrubs/small trees right next to the house etc and are disappointed when they start growing up through the windows and under the eaves. These guys need room to grow and mature so you can properly enjoy them.

While some Crape Myrtle varieties come as small as 2-3 ft tall, many of my favorites easily go up to 30 feet (e.g., Natchez, Biloxi).

If it were me, I would choose my favorite between the two (crape myrtle for me as the winter bark display is almost as nice as it's summer flowers), trim it up as suggested in the above post (most varieties mature into a beautiful vase type shape), and remove the Rose of Sharon. Maybe you could save a piece of the root stock from the Rose of Sharon and plant it elsewhere in your yard where it has room to breath and grow.

In any event, they are certainly not weeds as someone suggested above. That’s just completely wrong. Depending on variety, they are ornamental shrubs or small/medium trees.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by Jrflyfish1:
Looks like rose of Sharon.

Three minutes from question to solid answer. This place is awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I once dated a girl called "Creepy Mertle".
Oh, wait... wrong thread ..

Too much information, sir!

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
It's pretty much a weed.

Perhaps that preempts the next question: how to take care of it? Both are overhanging my deck stairs, so there's definitely some trimming to be done. If this is basically a weed, then perhaps there's no real value in keeping it? (I'm cool with cutting/digging it out.)

Just prune it back. We do that fairly often here in N. Virginia. We have lots of those here on our lot.

This was brought to my attention by a "friend of a friend." Thought it was interesting and kind of fits in this thread. This man had two apple trees on his property. The man had a botanical background and was familiar with orchards. He could not identify the species or variety of the two apple trees and set out to identify them. Turns out the two trees were from a variety of apple tree thought to have been extinct for over 100 years.

https://www.wweek.com/outdoors...een-found-in-oregon/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fed161,

Rose of Sharon is listed as invasive in KY, PA, TN, and VA.

quote:

Originally posted by x0225095:
Yes. They are misplaced IMO. A lot of folks plant either of these two large shrubs/small trees right next to the house etc and are disappointed when they start growing up through the windows and under the eaves. These guys need room to grow and mature so you can properly enjoy them.

While some Crape Myrtle varieties come as small as 2-3 ft tall, many of my favorites easily go up to 30 feet (e.g., Natchez, Biloxi).

If it were me, I would choose my favorite between the two (crape myrtle for me as the winter bark display is almost as nice as it's summer flowers), trim it up as suggested in the above post (most varieties mature into a beautiful vase type shape), and remove the Rose of Sharon. Maybe you could save a piece of the root stock from the Rose of Sharon and plant it elsewhere in your yard where it has room to breath and grow.

In any event, they are certainly not weeds as someone suggested above. That’s just completely wrong. Depending on variety, they are ornamental shrubs or small/medium trees.

I was in the 'biz' @ a hundred years ago and I, more or less agree.

Rose of Sharon (Althea) might be invasive in certain areas and environments, but they are hardly trash or garbage shrubs. They produce beautiful, if not fragrant, flowers, have a aesthetically pleasing leaf, and can survive or even thrive in varied conditions.

The outfit I used to work for used to charge a pretty penny when selling them to residential and commercial customers.

One of the most common mistakes seen in landscape design is planting a tree, shrub, perrenial, or even an annual in the wrong location. Wrong plant in a location. Often, it's the home owner that decides to plant a tree or shrub in the wrong place, but almost as frequently, it's a builder or commercial property owner that wants instant effect, and doesn't much care what the landscape looks like after they've sold all the units, and doesn't care if plants become sickly, damaged, or cause problems in landscapes years into the future. Most landscape designers will warm the buyers of potential problems, but if they are overruled by the buyer, are only all too happy to sell more plants than a design requires, or more expensive plants when less expensive ones might work or even do better. In the end, the customer makes the call.

Proper plant selection and location, proper maintenance, including proper pruning are key to how well a plant does in a landscape, especially as the plants mature.

These are some recent photos of some Rose of Sharons in a landscape at a local community center.

The plants themselves are healthy and beautiful, but that is despite the fact that they haven't been pruned properly. Also, while not the most egregious example I've seen, they are not the best choice for this particular design and far from being ideally placed.












One other suggestion you might consider is to transplant one or both of your shrubs into a more suitable location in your landscape. It's a lot of work to do this with existing shrubs and for the best chance of success you would want to root prune them now, but we're getting into the right season to do it in, and if done properly both shrubs could likely handle it, and you might be able to save some money doing it yourself...or, you might hire some local professionals that could transplant them for you.