This is not Rose of Sharon. I have posted a few Rose of Sharon pics in my gallery. Feel free to take a look.

Well, depends whether you're American or not, Nanwilson! In America, several plants are called Rose of Sharon (lord knows how anyone knows which plant they're talking about there), the commonest being Hibiscus. (And there are many more anomalies - Osmanthus is called Tea Olive over there...)

However, in the UK, Rose of Sharon is a common name applied to Hypericum varieties, and that's what you're showing in your photograph.

It may be that either you were looking at an American source when you saw the pink flowered thing, or that (horror of horrors) the American way of using one common name for more than one plant is being taken up here. If what you saw looked like a lavatera, that might be what it was, or it might have been Hibiscus. I wouldn't buy from the people advertising it on principle, personally - we've got enough trouble with our own common names without importing more! (apologies to Bathgate...)

There are Hypericums with pink or orange or red berries, but not with pink trumpet like flowers.

As Bamboo says, yours IS a Rose of Sharon (Hypericum), just as your grandmother said. There is no such thing as a pink-flowered Hypericum.

Aarrgghh! The reputation us horrible Yanks have! Variation in common names has been a problem worldwide for centuries, which is why botanists use Linnaeus' system, so they always know what plant they are talking about. Admittedly, the UK has less variability in the common names in use there, possibly due to the long influence of garden societies? In the U.S., the diversity of our population's origins, and the freewheeling nature of gardening publications here, with no one to tell an author "Oh, piffle! It is no such thing!"

Sorry, Tug! I answer questions on a US based site too, so that's how I know this stuff - but it does seem that Americans generally have a particularly strong aversion to using the Latin names. The first time I ID'd Osmanthus burkwoodii, it was met with some very puzzled questions/protestations, so I had to provide a link as proof...

As for common names here, they're just as much a pain as yours are...

lol! Rose of Sharon here is simply a hardy Hibiscus.

Not just botanists either, it is a problem in all areas of classification. And just to make things even more weird Prunella is a genus of plants as well as one of our native birds. Same with Epilobium, a plant and a beetle. Confused me as a student as at the time I understood the generic name couldn't be used across phyla. But it can.

That's what google thinks too, but to me its Hypericum calcynum, and your British Grandma was right.

...and Boston Cream Pie is actually a cake! What a crazy world we live in!

What kind of cake? (And don't say a cream cake...)

It's a dreamy cake! Yellow sponge cake with vanilla custard between the layers. Chocolate sauce covering the top and allowed to drizzle down the sides. One of my favorite desserts with coffee.

Wish I wasn't allergic to chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And no cream! LOL...

OK you can have cream and put a cherry on it too!

Allergic to cream as well!

Thank you so much for everyones help - probably was an American website that I saw the pink one on xx