Knowledgebase
Non sterile mixed with sterile Rose of Sharons #750065
Asked May 15, 2021, 11:22 AM EDT
I have a lot of Rose of Sharon bushes along my fence line. The non-sterile kind. I would like to use sterile plants in a new fence line. Will they stay sterile?
Wayne County Michigan
Expert Response
Hello Christine,
As you know, Rose of Sharon has a habit of seeding extensively, to the point that it can be considered invasive. In order to stop this, propagators have produced plants that are considered sterile. For a plant to be sterile, it has an incorrect number of chromosomes. If the plant has an uneven number of chromosome pairs, it cannot produce balanced gamete pairs (eggs or sperm cells) and will not be able to produce viable offspring. Sterile Rose of Sharon cannot produce seeds to form new plants. If you replace your old Rose of Sharon trees with sterile plants, the new plants will not produce seedlings. However, the seeds from the nonsterile trees may still exist in the soil.
Thank you for contacting Ask Extension.
