In article , sherwindu
wrote:

I have a Rose of Sharon planted from a whip about 8 years ago. It has
been a steady producer of blossoms. I have been pruning it down to keep
it from covering
a bedroom window on the South side of the house. The tree looks healthy
except that none of the numerous buds ever opened this year. It
receives almost full sun and
is watered regularly. What would keep the flower buds from opening? We
live in
a north suburb of Chicago.

Sherwin D.

Some possibilities:

1) A dry heatwave which even a hardy rose of sharon found offending &
which baked the buds

2) An unseasonal freeze that stopped them in their development.

3) Being given nitrogen fertilizer (makes the leaves over-happy, stops the
flowers).

4) Poor watering practices (they're easily overwatered, but they do also
have limits of xeriscaping tolerance, so that both too wet or too dry is
bad; it's especially harmful to water rose-of-sharon too regularly)

5) Getting too much shade, which you indicate ain't it.

6) Thrips ate into the buds

7) Root system is unrestricted & it expended energy that would otherwise
have gone to flowering in preparing itself to sucker like the devil next
year.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com