Question
Tom,
I had contacted you earlier about the unknown flowering bush in my backyard.  People keep telling me that it is a rose of sharon.  Here is my delima.  I have a bush that I know is a rose of sharon and while the leaves are similar they have a few differences.  The unknown bush's leaves are a darker green and have a few points on the leaves that are a bit different. Could my unknown bush be a different type of rose of sharon?  I knew there were different colors of flowers but I wasn't sure if there were differnt kinds of rose of sharons that had different leaves.  Can you help?

Answer
Hi Kathy,
Thanx for your question.  It is entirely possible that you have a genetic deviation in your Rose-of-Sharon and so the leaves might vary from the other Roses-of-Sharon you have seen.  Do the flowers still look somewhat like a hollyhock?  It's probably just a variation.  This happens a lot in nature.  There are many colors and cultivars of Rose-of-Sharon.  I hope this helps.
Tom