By now, you surely know that PANTONE 17-3938, Veri Peri, is the 2022 Pantone Color of the Year. When the color of the year is announced, folks like me that promote flowering plants rush to their catalogs to see which of their plants bloom in the chosen hue.

But did you also know that Pantone offers suggestions of additional colors that balance, amuse, and are otherwise compatible with their color of the year? I wrote an article with my horticultural pairings but neglected to include Azurri Blue Satin® Hibiscus. I think it deserves a little more love than that, so it gets its own feature in the Plant of the Week.

Azurri Blue Satin® rose of Sharon provides an exuberant display of true blue flowers in summer. It will do best in full sun and gets 8-12′ tall/6-10′ wide. It is hardy down to USDA zone 5 and heat tolerant to zone 9.

If a refreshing flock of mid-summer flowers isn’t reason enough to fall in love with this blue beauty, Azurri Blue Satin® is also seedless. Anyone who has ever spent an afternoon pulling up seedlings and cursing their decision to plant a ‘Blue Bird’ or other seedy variety will appreciate this. If you love seedless but need something smaller, check out this post about Pollypetite rose of Sharon.

Hibiscus syriacus will grow in hot, dry conditions and tolerate drought and clay soil. It’s also considered to be deer-resistant, although we all know that’s relative.

Rose of Sharon are often taken for granted. They’re an old-fashioned plant without a lot of plant snob appeal. But sometimes we come back to old-fashioned things because it turns out they’re pretty good.

Hibiscus, in general, are very cool plants with an interesting history. Want to know more about them? Check out this nifty video – you’ll be an expert in all things Hibiscus by the end.
Enjoy! – Natalie