I live in Canada in a city in Ontario. I believe that I am in Zone 6. I have had Rose of Sharon at my home for a couple of decades. I have pink, purple and white with a red throat, but one day one of my seedlings turned out to have a white bloom with a white throat. My backyard has too much shade and root competition and the Rose of Sharons there have been slow to grow, but my pink one is mature. I also have three Rose of Sharons at the side of my house, located against my brick wall and close to my neighbor's property. It is there that they grow beautifully, with abundant blooms, beginning early. There is a huge difference between these Rose of Sharon and the ones in my backyard. I have determined that the Rose of Sharons require at least several hours of sun or more and a sheltered spot is ideal. I have been growing Rose of Sharon from seed and have found that the shrub will produce blooms in the third year of growth. But last year I decided to take two cuttings from my friend's double Rose of Sharon (hibiscus syriacus). It turned out to be an interesting experiment. Both cuttings "took" and I overwintered the cuttings in my house. Early spring they developed dust mites. When it was warm enough to put them outside in their pots, I did that. They were sprayed for the dust mites. I think the pesticide was too strong for the plant and the leaves curled up. But I proceeded to nuture them! This is what amazed me: the cuttings are quite small (maybe 10 inches high and one of them has buds on it! Now mind you the leaves still don't look that great, but I looking forward to seeing the bloom. My conclusion: much better to take cuttings. I am thinking that by next year the leaves should look "normal."

Deserai, I have seen fuzzy vs. not on all varieties of Hibs. I do not think you can determine what the type will be by the seed. I have seeds from 'Athena', 'Minerva', 'Aphrodite', 'Blue Satin', and more. I do like Hibiscus Syriacus (Rose of Sharon) as they do very well in my location. Good luck with your new seeds. Ed

I am in the Chicago suburbs and I swear we are mis-zoned here (we are really zone 4 here). Anyway I have 4 Diana's and one Aphrodite and they all came back beautifully this year, later than other shrubs as usual, but that's okay. I just put in a Helene today in place of one that didn't come back. I AM TRYING TO FIND THE MOST COLD-HARDY HIBISCUS SYRIACUS FOR THE NORTHERN CLIMATES. Going on one grower site after another tells one nothing. I understand diploids are more cold hardy than triploids, but that's one grower's comment. Is anyone in northern climates (zone 4, etc) growing these and with which varieties are you having the most luck. Thanks in advance

I had Althea Hibiscus syriacus 'red heart' until last year and a white double variety that is blooming right now. I think the red heart was actually fairly hardy-I had it for 3 years-I just made the mistake of transplanting it to an exposed western location last year. I think the trick to growing them here is to have them in a full sun in a somewhat protected location. And to mulch them really well in late fall. They also don't like to be crowded too much-I've noticed that branches too close to other shrubs don't come back. Flowerwise-they do pretty much the same thing as hardy hisbiscus-the flowers look similar (at least red heart's did)-only smaller-and only last for one day. The advantage of the rose of sharon is that there are a few more flowers (and different choice of colors) on stronger, woody stems vs hardy hibiscus, and their water requirements are somewhat less than hardy hibiscus. The disadvantage is that rose of sharon is less hardy than hardy hibiscus and is really slow to come back in the spring-so you basically have what looks like a dead shrub until the middle or end of may.