More pruning tips for other shrubsįiled Under: Gardening Techniques Tagged With: Garden maintenance Reader Interactions Never prune more than a third of the total height of the shrub. Lastly, prune for shape, removing any branches that are too tall or growing in a direction you don’t want them to. This is also a good opportunity to thin out dead or damaged wood, or any unruly branches that affect the tree’s shape. Using a sharp pair of loppers, prune out any branches that form at the base of the tree. Every year I think I’ve killed mine, but they always come back (eventually). It’s important to note that a rose of Sharon is among the last shrubs to get its leaves in the spring. I usually prune mine in late winter or early spring. This will help take care of the aforementioned seed pods and the actual pruning all in one go. However you can prune them immediately after flowering in the fall.

Rose of Sharons are best pruned when dormant because the blooms will grow on new wood. Once your rose of Sharon buds are taken care of, you don’t have to do anything until the following year. Here’s a video showing how I shear the seed pods in the fall to keep my rose of Sharons from self-sowing all over the garden: If you allow rose of Sharon Seed pods to dry out and open while they’re still on the plant, you’ll be dealing with hundreds of little seedlings at the base of your shrub. You could eventually be pulling seedlings out of anywhere you spread the compost in the garden. Don’t add rose of Sharon pods to your compost pile. Use a sharp pair of pruners to trim the seed pods from the tips of all the branches. You want to make sure you trim them off before they start to turn brown and open. They eventually dry out and open, dropping their seeds to the ground below where you will undoubtedly get a small forest of rose of Sharons. This is what the rose of Sharon seed pods look like. Those blooms will turn into fat, green seed pods, each containing several seeds. When the shrub is in bloom, keep an on it as the blooms start to fade. Pruning a rose of Sharon can happen in the fall, but if you prefer to wait until late winter or early spring when the plant is still dormant, it’s important to know when to get rid of the seed pods. This bee was so covered in pollen from a rose of Sharon bloom, he could could barely fly! When to shear rose of Sharon seed pods I’ve seen bees coming out of a flower, covered in pollen, and hummingbirds flitting about the blooms. My parents have a rose of Sharon hedge in front of a fence at their current home and it looks really pretty when it’s in bloom. Rose of Sharons look great in perennial gardens-mine have all been pruned to be trees-but they can also be trained into a hedge. So this article is both a lesson in pruning a rose of Sharon and a cautionary tale. I soon discovered they were miniature rose of Sharon plants-hundreds of them trying to make their way in the world. Fast forward to our second spring and I couldn’t figure out what all these tiny little weeds sprouting up in my lawn were. We moved in the fall and the trees had been meticulously pruned, so we didn’t need to worry about pruning them that first year. When I moved into my current home and started to get to know my garden, I discovered I had five rose of Sharon plants on the property.

Purple rose of sharon bush