Rose of Sharon

There are several different flowers known as "Rose of Sharon," but in the U.S. the term is most often applied to Hibiscus syriacus, native to India and many parts of Asia and the national flower of South Korea. In my yard it is practically a weed, reproducing like mad from the half-dozen plants we were gifted by a neighbor about fifteen years ago.

Multiple colors of Rose of Sharon have taken up residence throughout our yard:

This is one of the few pure white specimens in our yard. I thought I had some lavender ones somewhere, but it's possible I cut them down while trying to open up space for a rosebush that they were crowding out.

The high-contrast monochrome version doesn't reveal much, except to make it clear that the flower is actually a very pale cream color.

This is the most common color variation I have seen, white with a deep red center.

This pink one with a red center holds its blossoms high. While most of my flower photos were taken in close-up mode, this one had to be photographed with a zoom. Note that this one has a bumblebee visitor!

This is another pink-and-red version, with blossoms held much lower. The flowers seem to be shaped differently from the ones in the previous photo. The red center is much lighter than the one on the white-and-red version.

Rose of Sharon started to bloom shortly after the Fourth of July, though today was the first time that I noticed so many different varieties in bloom. I think there are a few more that have yet to open. We'll see if other color variations appear.

UPDATE, August 6, 2018: It took a few weeks, but lavender varieties started to bloom in late July. All of the Rose of Sharon - bushes? trees? some are well over twelve feet tall - are still in full bloom, and there's a broad variety of colors on display simultaneously.