Plants with meaning, part 2

Over the years, I've planted a lot of shrubs along our 6' privacy fence.  I thought it would be pretty to have something that flowers in front of every post. (The fence posts are 6' apart).  Of the original shrubs I planted, at least half died.  The rose bush and it's replacement?  Too temperamental.  With one exception, every rose bush I've ever planted has succumbed to disease.  They always get leaf blight, slowly lose their leaves and die.

I had a weigela that grew well and gave me beautiful pink flowers.  Than suddenly it just died.  Just like that.  I never knew what happened it to it.

I planted a lily tree that my son weed wacked three years in a row.  I finally got to see it flower last summer for the first time in years!

To be honest, I can't remember what happened to the others.  Some of them never established from the beginning.  So now I've got some small shrub-lings in front of the posts, shrubs I'm growing from cuttings.

I was outside last summer when I became very aware of my secondary reason to plant shrubs along the fence.  While I love our neighbors, there's one place along the fence where the view from their patio looks directly over ours.  When they're out and we're out, it's not very private.  So I thought I'd plant something that would grow tall - and quickly - in front of that place.  Something that would block the view, but have flowers.

I have a rose of sharon tree in my garden with light pink flowers, and when it blooms in the fall, it's just beautiful.  It's the kind of plant that blooms so generously, it's just covered in flowers when it blooms.

Rose of sharon trees (or shrubs, depending on how you prune them) grow quickly.  They also can be grown easily; just cut a piece of branch from a rose of sharon, stick it in the ground, keep it watered and you have another.  

So when my neighbor Teresa was moving two years ago, I asked her if she minded if I took a few cuttings from her tree while I was helping her move.  Of course she didn't!  Teresa had a beautiful purple rose of sharon in her back yard.  I figured if I was going to plant a second, I'd get one with a different color.

It took a couple of tries.  I had to go back to her house for new cuttings once or twice.  But on the third of fourth try, I got one growing.  I stuck the little cutting in the ground in the spring of 2021.  Last fall (a year and a half later), I saw it's first flowers.

From a little 6" cutting, it grew this much in a year and a half.
After it bloomed, I cut the side branches off.  I want it to grow into a tree, not a shrub.
I want it to be tall rather than wide.

While I know rose of sharon trees are pretty ubiquitous, this one is still special to me.  My friend Teresa may have left, but I remember her every time I see this tree.  It's not just ANY rose of sharon!

And to bring the blog back on point...I was at Lowe's last summer, and I happened to see this:

A rose of sharon, about the same size as mine.

But THIS one cost a bit more than free!

Not only did I save $30, but I had the fun of growing mine myself.

And my rose of sharon came from someone special.

I think I'm growing a garden of memories.

I was just looking through photos from 2018, and I couldn't believe the photos of the first rose of sharon in my garden.  It was tiny!  In four years, it grew enormously.  It shouldn't be long before my new one  is taller than the fence.

My new tree-ling may be a rose of sharon, but she's a rose of Teresa to me.