Scientific Name: Hibiscus syriacus
Common Name: hardy hibiscus, rose of Sharon
Family Name: Malvaceae
Origin: South Asia / India
Hardiness Zone: Zone 5: (-29 to -23 °C)
Plant Type: Shrub - deciduous
Mature Size: 2 - 3m x 1.5 - 2.0m (height x width)
Habit: Upright
Form: Vase
Texture: Medium
Landscape Uses: Fall interest, Hedge row, Mixed shrub border, Screening, Summer interest
Exposure: Full sun, Part sun/part shade
Soil or Media: Humus rich, Well-drained
Leaves: Simple, Lobed, Alternate, Soft flexible, Pinnate venation, Palmate venation, Glabrous, Lustrous, Ovate, Rhomboidal, Dentate
Flowers: Cyme, White, Blue, Violet, Red, Sep-Oct
Fruit: Capsule, Aborted (hybrids) or absent, Brown, Oct-Nov, (Persistent)
Key ID Features:
Shrub upright, vase-shaped, stems gray; leaves alternate, ovate, 5-8cm long x wide, coursely toothed, palmately veined, 3 major lobes towards apex on most cvs., light green, stipules 4-7mm long x <0.5mm wide; flowers trumpet-shaped to head-like with multiple petals, 5-10cm wide, 5 to many petals, solitary or cymose. Winter ID: branches whitish, upright; persistent 5-valved capsules; buds alternate with small hairs; leaf scar crescent shaped with many bundle scars in 3 or 4 groups; hair-like stipules may persist.