Large showy blossoms are a lovely blue accentuated with a red-purple heart. Intermediate size plants bloom from July-September with 3-4" diameter flowers bringing welcome color to the summer landscape. 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.