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Rose of Sharon blooming

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I’m always surprised when I look at the stats for this site and I see the search term “Rose of Sharon” come up almost daily all year round. There’s obviously a lot more people than I thought looking for information about Rose of Sharon shrubs!

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My Rose of Sharon came to me 7 years ago as a gift from my neighbor. She has a Rose of Sharon, lets call it the mother tree, that is about 40+ years old.

I’m not sure how tall her tree is but lets say it’s somewhere between 12 and 15 feet tall. The seedling she gave me has grown quite a bit over the years and it’s only about two feet shorter than the mother tree. It’s trunk and branches have thickened, but they are still smaller in diam. than the mother trees – but not by that much.

This is definitely not the best picture of the tree that I’ve ever taken, but to show you how big it is this year and what it looks like in full bloom, here we go …

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You can see the power line above the tree so that should give you an idea of how tall it is.

It’s been a beautiful addition to my garden. I love it’s purple blooms. Birds love the tree year round, and butterflies and other insects enjoy the tree when it’s in bloom. I’m sure it’s helped attract some of the butterflies that frequent my yard regularly each year.

The Rose of Sharon is a fairly hardy tree, but it’s slow to leaf out in the spring. It’s often one of the last plants to start to show signs of life in my garden. I usually see leaves forming by early June, but there have been a few years where it hasn’t leafed out till close to the end of June.

My elderly neighbor always thinks her tree is dead each year because it’s so slow and each year I reassure her that it will leaf out and bloom – and it does.

I’ll bet that the Rose of Sharon being slow to start up in the spring or early summer is one of the major reasons why I get so many searches on my site for this lovely shrub.

I used to have a Hardy Hibiscus that would die down each winter, but for the past two years it’s failed to come up. I think it’s gone. My tropical Hibiscus – that I keep indoors in the winter – is doing well in a large urn at the front of the house. There are several peach colored blooms on it.

Do you grow Hibiscus? What type and what have your experiences been with the plant?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!






Chinodoxa or Glory of the Snow

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It’s been a beautiful week here in Toronto. The plants in my garden have shown their appreciation of the warm weather by growing and growing and growing some more!

Chionodoxa

The Chionodoxa, Glory of the Snow, is blooming. One day the plants were just short little green leaves, the next a few tiny buds had appears and then the following day the Chionodoxa had grown several inches and were blooming. I’ve got white ones, bluish ones and pink ones blooming in several clumps throughout the back garden.

The Chionodoxa in the front garden beds aren’t blooming yet. That area only gets late afternoon sun so it will probably be another week before they begin to bloom. The tulips in the front beds have really grown in the last day or so though.

I don’t see many people talking about Chionodoxa or Glory of the Snow as they are more commonly called. I wonder if they aren’t a very popular spring flower in many areas? If they aren’t it’s a shame because they are very easy to grow and as you can see from the photo I’ve included above they produce lovely clumps of flowers in the spring garden.

Here’s a little more information about this lovely spring flower:

Latin Name: Chionodoxa luciliae, C. gigantea
Common Name: Glory of the Snow

The species originated in Asia Minor and propagates by offset bulblets. These spring flowering bulbs requires a warm (60 to 70F) – cool (20 to 30F) – warm (35 to 55F) annual thermoperiodic cycle.

Depending upon the area, these bulbs will bloom anywhere from February to April.

If you purchase bulbs for planting they should be 4/5 to 5 cm and up in circumference. Plant in the fall, one inch apart, at five inches in depth.

These flowers are hardy to USDA zone 3 with mulch, and zones 4 to 7 without mulch.

Requires – full sunlight AM or PM sunlight, 25% shade.

Tolerates – summer drought, but requires adequate moisture throughout the growing season.

Look for these bulbs in your local garden center or nursery when Fall bulbs are being sold.

I planted most of mine in 2002 and they’re still going strong so I’d say this is a long lived and or self- propagating plant for most gardens. Mine are growing at the edge of my flower beds as they are relatively short plants that only grow to at most 6 inches in height.

Glory of the Snow are perfect for rock gardens, beds, ground covers, lawns, and woodland gardens. Some companion that Chionodoxa goes well with are Chaenomeles japonica, Forsythia, Jasminum nudiflorum, Helleborus orientalis, Vinca minor, Hammamelis.

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