Rose

Rose of Sharon is the late-summer flowering shrub that delivers tropical-looking blooms, three to four inches across, in shades of white, pink, purple, red, and bicolored combinations, at a time when most shrubs have long finished flowering. It grows eight to twelve feet tall with an upright, vase-shaped form, and the flowers appear on new wood from July through September, making it one of the last shrubs to bloom in the landscape calendar. Despite the common name and the species epithet syriacus, it is native to China and India, not Syria.

In Western Washington, rose of Sharon needs full sun and the warmest microclimate you can provide. It leafs out late, often not until June, which can make it look dead long after everything else has greened up. The late leafing is normal. The plant performs best against south-facing walls and in the warmest urban microclimates where summer heat accumulates. No significant disease or pest concerns are tracked in this region, though Japanese beetles are a concern in areas where they have established. The one management issue is self-seeding: fertile cultivars produce abundant seedlings. Choose sterile or near-sterile selections like 'Diana' (white) or the Chiffon series to avoid the weeding problem. For late-season flower color on a tough, upright shrub, rose of Sharon fills a gap nothing else in the hardy palette covers.