Rose of sharon

Hibiscus syriacus is a hardy deciduous shrub. It is upright and vase-shaped, reaching 2–4 m (7–13 feet) in height, bearing large trumpet-shaped flowers with prominent yellow-tipped white stamens. The flowers are often pink in color, but can also be dark pink (almost purple), light pink or white. Individual flowers are short-lived, lasting only a day. However, numerous buds produced on the shrub's new growth provide prolific flowering over a long summer blooming period. The soil in which the Hibiscus thrives on is a moist, but well-drained, mixture of sand, clay, chalk, and loam. Hibiscus syriacus is highly tolerant of air pollution, heat, humidity, poor soil and drought. The species has naturalized very well in many suburban areas, and might even be termed slightly invasive, so frequently it does seed around.   Leaves GrowthEdit The branches are thin and gray, white-lenticeled, with raised leaf scars and small buds. Stems and branches do not branch very much unless pruned, resulting in many long, straight stems that originate from about 1.5–4 cm (0.5–1.5 inches) above the ground, giving rise to the shrub's overall vase shape. The leaves appear unusually late in the season, in May. They are usually green or yellowish green, alternate, broadly ovate, palmately veined, and 7.5 cm (3 inches) long. They have three distinct lobes with coarsely-toothed margins. FlowersEdit Learn moreThis section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Hibiscus syriacus" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)  Hibiscus syriacus 'Oiseau Bleu' H. syriacus has 5-petaled flowers (to 7.5 cm or 3 inches diameter) in solid colors of white, red, purple, mauve, violet, or blue, or bicolors with a different colored throat, depending upon the cultivar. Extending from the base of these five petals is the pistil at the center, with the stamen around it. These basic characteristics give the H. syriacus flower and its many variants their distinctive form. The plant can bloom continuously from July through September, usually at night. The 10-centimetre-wide (4-inch), single- or double-flowering, large-petaled, very showy flowers adorn the plant throughout the summer. With maturity, flexible plant stems become weighted under the load of prolific summer flowers, and bend over halfway to the ground. Fruits and seedsEdit Most modern cultivars are virtually fruitless. The fruits of those that have them are green or brown, ornamentally unattractive 5-valved dehiscent capsules, which persist throughout much of the winter on older cultivars. They will eventually shatter over the course of the dormant season and spread their easily germinating seeds around the base of the parent plant, forming colonies with time.