I have heard the name, but I didn't know what it was. And, I didn't have a clue it would grow in Utah...
I was at a wildlands nursery one day and asked the owner, a good friend of mine, for some plant and bushes ideas for the back of the house. The West side. The side that gets blazing afternoon sun, so I needed something hardy and 'hot' heat tolerant and she suggest "Rose of Sharon" bushes...
I had heard of them, but I didn't know what they were...
She didn't have any, at the time, at her nursery, so I went on the hunt and found a couple at Ace Hardware's nursery.
I planted 2 in the planter box right against the house in hopes of 'espalier' training them up the house at the sides of the bedroom window and then across the window, like one might do with a climbing rose...
She told me that I would have greater success in that location with this "Rose of Sharon" bush versus a climbing rose, so I bought 2 of these kind...
And put them toward the outside in this 'planter' on the backside of the house...
(You can see it there on the left... See the flowers...)
On the ends of the planter, I planted Virginia Creepers - then planted a Salvia. Then, I put the Rose of Sharon, another Saliva and under the windows are some purple butterfly bushes that grow to 30" in height...
I read about the "Rose of Sharon" bush before I bought them and a few articles said they were slow to leaf out in the Spring and that it can take up to 3 years for them to bloom =( 3 years wait?
I walked around the house yesterday and it certainly didn't take 3 years. In fact, it only took 1 month to see blooms and they're BEAUTIFUL~!
I'm shocked that these 'little twiggy' bushes have such large, gorgeous, flowers on them, with lots of buds still ready to bloom...
And my friend at the nursery was spot on...
They LOVE the blazing afternoon sun~!
It amazes me that these little-tiny, newly planted, barely 1 month old bush stems can hold up so many heavy flowers...
My goal is that the back of the house still resemble this someday and I'm pretty sure we're on the right track...
There's some great advice online to show how to train a "Rose of Sharon" bush to grow up the back side of my house and over the back window - How to train a Rose of Sharon bush... This will be easy...
Next Spring, I'll be on the hunt for some more varieties for some different places in the yard too...
Maybe, I'll plant a few and train them into trees, like this...
Strategically place them so they can be seen out the windows at all times...
I figure, no matter what I do with this beautiful new discovery, it will be beautiful all over my yard~!
A little piece of heaven in the hot, Utah desert~!!!
Beautiful! I forgot to comment on another post where you said you wanted some hollyhocks. I love hollyhocks and they have perennial ones now, not as tall. I love that picture you used for inspiration. Also, I heard that in times past, hollyhocks would be planted by the outhouse so ladies didn't have to ask where it was, they just looked for hollyhocks. :-)
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