Hibiscus

A tender tropical evergreen shrub grown for its enormous, flamboyant flowers — broad funnels of red, pink, orange, yellow, or white, single or double, each with a long protruding column of fused stamens. Native to tropical Asia (a cultigen of such ancient cultivation that no certain wild origin survives), Hibiscus rosa-sinensis blooms continuously in warmth above glossy, dark green, evergreen leaves. Each flower typically lasts only a day, but a healthy plant opens fresh blooms in steady succession from spring through fall — and year-round in frost-free climates. It is the classic hibiscus of warm-climate landscapes and patio containers: heat- and humidity-loving, frost-tender, and hardy in the ground only in USDA zones 9a-11b.

A bold, moisture-loving native perennial of eastern North America that dies back to a woody base each winter and returns to throw up stout 2-6 ft stems topped with enormous 4-8 inch saucer-shaped flowers — white, pink, red, or burgundy, each with a contrasting central eye — from June into September. NC State Extension describes a herbaceous perennial hardy across USDA zones 4a-9b that thrives in wet to constantly moist soils, tolerates heat, humidity, and even brief flooding, and draws hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators. The tropical-looking dinner-plate blooms make it a dramatic focal point for rain gardens, pond edges, and the back of a sunny border.

A vigorous, upright, vase-shaped deciduous shrub native to eastern Asia (China to India) — not the Middle East its epithet implies — grown for showy hollyhock-like 5-petaled flowers up to 3 inches across with a prominent central staminal column. The long early-summer-to-fall bloom fills a late-season gap when most shrubs are done flowering. Tolerant of summer heat, humidity, drought, clay, and urban conditions, though species plants can self-seed aggressively and are reported invasive in parts of the eastern US.