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 to 6 feet 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.

An upright, frost-tender warm-season annual mallow domesticated in West Africa and now grown throughout the tropics for its edible calyces (GBIF). It carries red stems, lobed leaves, and pale-yellow hibiscus flowers, but the prize is the fleshy, deep-red CALYCES that swell around the seed pod after each flower fades - the source of the famous ruby "hibiscus" / roselle / bissap tea, syrups, and jam. The young leaves are also eaten as a sour potherb. It needs a long hot season and full sun to flower and set its calyces, and because it is short-day it flowers only as the nights lengthen in autumn, so in cool-summer climates it may run out of season before the harvest matures.