Garden Highlights

Don't miss our Garden Highlights, updated weekly on Tuesday, featuring plants for their outstanding ornamental characteristics. Discover everything from flowers to fruit, buds, bark and more. Call our Bloom Line at 612.625.9791 for information or use the Garden Highlights layer on our digital map to find these plants at the Arboretum.

Featured Plant: August 9 - August 15

Common Name: Hardy Hibiscus
Scientific Name: Hibiscus

While tropical Hibiscus flowers are associated with climates that are closer to the equator, hardy Hibiscus (also known as rose mallow or rose of sharon) are cultivated perennial hybrids that are hardy to zones 4 or 5. “Hybrid hardy Hibiscus cultivars are often the result of complex breeding work involving multiple species native to the U.S., including Hibiscus coccineus, Hibiscus laevis and Hibiscus moscheutos,” according to the Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder.

While they usually take a bit of time to put out new growth, hardy Hibiscus make a beautiful focal point in the garden with large blooms that come in a wide variety of colors, blooming mid-summer to early fall.

Find hardy Hibiscus throughout the Arboretum, including the Spiegel Entrance Garden, Elizabeth Carr Slade Perennial Garden and MacMillan Terrace Garden.

Sunflower

Panicle Hydrangea

American Elderberry

Floribunda Rose

Maypop

American Bittersweet

Daylily

Floribunda Rose

Dahlia

Large-leaved Aster

Lavender Globe Lily

Narrow-spiked Ligularia

Wayfaring-tree Viburnum

Common Boneset

Balloon Flower

Compass Plant

Sweet Joe-pye Weed

Garden Phlox

Wholeleaf Rosinweed

White Coneflower

Shiny Coneflower

Spotted Horsemint

Western Ironweed

Shasta Daisy