Home Improvement Blog

I was talking to a very experienced rose garden enthusiast the other day, Dr Tom Goodman, who has spent many years digging in the soil to create magnificent rose gardens. He retired from teaching years ago and is now a professional photographer. Ten years ago he decided he needed a beautiful natural background scene to take photos of his photography clients.

Dr Tom decided to plant a very large rose garden with climbing roses for the arches, trellises and fences. A variety of bush roses were planted near the garden benches and walkways. Miniature rose bushes were planted around the fish pond and waterfall. Many of the rose bushes came from cuttings that were trimmed from a beautiful military rose garden in January 1971 when the rose bushes were dormant. The stocks or trimmings were cut to 12 inches and the bottom of the stock was cut at a 45 degree angle. continue reading…

Rose of Sharon, or Hibiscus syriacus, is a deciduous flowering shrub that has a few other common names. These are Rose of Althea and Shrub Althea. It is an ornamental shrub that is widely collected.

These are very valuable shrubs because of the fact that it has a late blooming period compared to other shrubs. It blooms around August, which means that your Rose of Sharon bush will offer you colour when many of your other shrubs have stopped blooming.

Appearance

These shrubs can grow to heights between eight and ten inches and have a spread of four to six inches. Some cultivars tend to stay shorter than that. Most bushes have small, deeply-lobed, light green leaves. It is vase-shaped and similar to other species of hibiscus, these bushes have flowers that come with a striking stamen. continue reading…