In message , Jenny
writes

The small Rose of Sharon I planted last year has no buds at all. My
neighbors' are all in bloom.

It has healthy foliage which broke dormancy at the right time.

Is this possibly because it is still young, or could it be that
something ate the buds off last fall? I have an occasional deer problem.

--Jenny
To the best of my knowledge H. syriacus blooms on the current years
wood, so something eating the buds last fall would be an unlikely
explanation.

H. syriacus will lose its flower buds if it gets too dry. (That's why
I'm giving up growing them in pots.) But I expect you would have noticed
if this had happened.

Is it a cultivar or a seedling? If it is a seedling being too young is
plausible, but grafted cultivars flower at quite a small size.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
http://www.malvaceae.info