Not A Daisy

  A few years back, it dawned on me that one of my shrubs had a quite beautiful name.  It is a common hibiscus but goes by two different familiar names...Rose of Sharon and Althea.  At that time, I decided to combine all of the names and call my pretty plant "Althea Rose Sharon Bush".  I also decided that she would be a true Southern Belle that resided in the garden.  It just made sense to me at the time.  The name stuck and now I introduce the lovely lady to visitors to the gardens that surround the Little Bayou House.

  The conversation usually goes a lot like this.  Visitor...What is that beautiful purple bloom?"  Me.."I would like to introduce you to my friend!  This is Althea Rose Sharon Bush and she lives beneath the old oak tree in the garden.".  To which the visitor inexplicably gets a rather bemused look on the face and mutters something that sounds a lot like..."She is a daisy."  I am aghast!  Althea Rose Sharon is not daisy.  She is lovely and a favorite of mine.  Whereas, the visitor starts to explain that they did not think my bush was a daisy but that I am a bit crazy for naming plants.  Well, could be but Althea is not a daisy.  Thus ends the conversation about Althea Rose Sharon as, by this time, the visitor has usually spied the peach tree that is weighted down with fruit or the huge tomato plants that are just starting to ripen their tomatoes.  I hurry along behind still trying to defend the dignity of the Lady Althea.

  Actually, the Rose of Sharon is an old southern favorite.  The bushes are easy to grow, do not require much care and bloom with wild abandon.  Mine is the most common...purple but they come in a wide range of colors from deep maroon to white and everything in between.  The bushes are easy to start from cuttings and seeds so there is no need to have just one.  This is one of the cases where more is better!  Althea Rose Sharon Bush will always have a home in my gardens.