Considered the best blue flowered variety, this grafted selection has improved vigor over own-root plants. The abundant, showy violet-blue single blossoms each have a dramatic, dark eye. Makes an ideal hedge, foundation or specimen, providing reliable summer color. Hibiscus syriacus, commonly called rose of Sharon or shrub althea, is a vigorous, upright, vase-shaped, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub. It may be trained as a small tree or espalier. Showy, hollyhock-like, 5-petaled flowers appear over a long, early-summer to fall bloom period. Each flower has a prominent and showy center staminal column.