you prune for shape/size .. not for more flowers

if yours is doing just fine.. i have no clue why you want to cut on it.. just because some stranger suggested such ... and w/o a link.. i cant really comment on such ..

i prune anything.. after it flowers ... not prior.. for fear of cutting off the buds ... though i suspect that might not be the rule for ROS ...

again .... if your is doing fine.. leave it alone ...

ken

ROS blooms on new wood so you can prune it before flowering. Mine was leaning after a bad winter and I cut it down to a foot high last spring. It grew back bushier and bloomed heavily. I think the blog you read was suggesting that pruning ROS will encourage it to branch out more, thus resulting in more flowers. Based on my experience, I agree with this. If you don't prune, it will be taller, less bushy, but it will still flower.

Ken...your right I should have attached a link. Checked back in my history for such. And attached it. Here is the comment in the first paragraph.

"Get out your pruners and loppers - it's time to do some pruning. Summer-flowering shrubs bloom on new growth from this year. Some examples are Potentilla, butterflybush, blue mist spirea and Rose of Sharon. They should be thinned or rejuvenated in the late winter or early spring before growth starts."

I currently like the looks of my Rose of Sharon...but it's only been in ground less than 4 years. So it's far from being out of control. But...thought it was meant to allow it to bloom better. Maybe I took it wrong.

I don't feel mine needs pruned...but was curious if I was doing it harm by not pruning.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://jeffcogardener.blogspot.com/2012/03/its-time-to-prune-your-summer-flowering.html

This kind of glib advice about doing busywork without explanation always exasperates me, and turns people off from gardening sometimes I think. "Sounds like a lot of work, I don't think I would know how..."

ROS makes a fine little tree, no annual pruning needed, and is not in any way similar to the other 2 plants mentioned. Hacking away at it could cause it to make a ton of suckers at the bottom. If you have a tree and don't want a 'patch,' don't trim anything (except to correct structural integrity, if/when occasionally necessary.) Glad you asked, NOT trimming is just fine, and 'the right thing to do' if someone doesn't want to ruin a nice little tree by turning it into a mass of suckers, or ending up with a lollipop by pollarding it.

With a few exceptions, shrubs and trees should never need heavy annual pruning. This is necessary though when something that *can* get much larger is put in a spot where letting it do so would be too much, blocking windows, doors, walkways, views. If you give each specimen the space it needs to mature naturally, hacking shrubs annually won't waste your time every year, unless, of course, that sounds like fun.