MEET THE 2023 LANDSCAPE SHRUB OF THE YEAR™ – PURPLE PILLAR® HIBISCUS
SPACE-SAVING FORM
A narrow, columnar form makes this rose of Sharon easy to tuck into many spaces, even in small landscapes.
A BILLBOARD FOR POLLINATORS
This shrub’s bright, prolific blooms draw in all sorts of pollinating bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
THRIVES IN HEAT AND HUMIDITY
When the going gets hot, Purple Pillar gets going! Watch it take off like gangbusters in the summer heat.
The flowers on Purple Pillar rose of Sharon are semi-double, which means that they have two or more layers of petals, but that the stamens and pistil are still visible in the center.
Versatile by Design
| Rose of Sharon has long been a beloved flowering shrub, but until now, people with small yards have had to enjoy this large, broad spreading plant from afar. Purple Pillar®, along with its red and white flowering siblings, have changed all that, making it possible for anyone with 4 to 5 feet of space to grow it. This columnar rose of Sharon will be the perfect fit in any sunny, narrow bed where you need some privacy or summer color. Every year around midsummer, bright lavender purple, semi-double blossoms with a deep red center begin to pop open along its vertical stems. They easily attract the attention of pollinating bees, butterflies and hummingbirds which zero in on the flowers’ red eye, pollen-covered stamens and pistil. The color show keeps right on coming through fall. Deer may stop by to see what all the hubbub is about, but they usually don’t find this plant tasty. |
HOW TO GROW PURPLE PILLAR® HIBISCUS
Fizzy Mizzy sweetspire grows in both sun and shade, but you’ll see more blooms if you plant it in a spot that sees at least some direct sunshine. Watering is a more critical factor to get right with this plant. It tolerates soil of average moisture but prefers moist soil and can even tolerate periodic flooding. You could grow it along the edge of a pond, near the bottom of a rain garden slope, or next to a downspout. If you irrigate your garden beds regularly, it will grow there too. A 1-2” layer of organic mulch will help to preserve soil moisture. When you take your new sweetspire out of the pot, if the roots are densely circled around, loosen them up a bit to break the “root memory”. This will encourage them to grow outward instead of continuing to grow in a circular pattern. A good rule of thumb is to dig your hole twice as wide and just as deep as the plant’s rootball. Note that our shrub partners at Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Shrubs do not recommend amending the soil for your new sweetspire at planting time or adding fertilizer to the planting hole even if you have clay or alkaline soil. When backfilling, press the soil down with your hand firmly to remove any big air pockets around the roots. Then, water the plant to help the soil settle around it. Spread a 2 to 3 inch thick layer of mulch around the base of the shrub taking care to keep it pulled away from the bark. |
MAINTENANCE Sweetspire needs very little maintenance, other than watering, to grow well. If you want it to grow faster, feed it once per season in early spring with a granular fertilizer formulated for woody plants, such as a rose fertilizer. However, fertilizing is not necessary for this shrub to grow and bloom well as long as your soil isn’t completely lacking in organic matter. Since sweetspire blooms on old wood, meaning that it sets its flower buds the year prior, you don’t want to prune its branches before the flowers bloom. Doing so would eliminate that year’s flowers. The exception is if there are any branches that are not showing signs of life after the new growth has begun to appear in spring, those select branches can be trimmed out of the plant. Fizzy Mizzy sweetspire naturally has a tidy form, but it’s not a bad idea for the first few years to prune it to shape immediately after the flowers are spent. This will help the shrub form a more attractive framework in the long run.
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USES Everybody needs at least a few plants in their yard that are low maintenance workhorses, able to withstand some challenging conditions without worry. That’s sweetspire. This attractive shrub is useful for filling large spaces, planting in low spots where water tends to pool now and then, and for controlling erosion along the banks of bodies of water and rain gardens. The plentiful, skyward-pointing blossoms of Fizzy Mizzy sweetspire will add a soft fragrance to your fresh cut bouquets in early summer. When gathering them to bring indoors, try not to cut too far down into the main branches but rather trim a few off the top third evenly around the plant to maintain a nice shape. If deer are frequent visitors to your garden, you’ll be happy to hear they usually pass right by sweetspire. Perhaps it’s because there is plenty of the native species, Itea virginica, growing in the wild. However, you can expect pollinating bees and butterflies to be frequent visitors when Fizzy Mizzy sweetspire is in bloom.
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