Hibiscus Syriacus - The battle of the blues

Hello all,

If I should post to the Trees & Shrubs forum, please let me know.

Though I grow a good number of Rose of Sharon shrubs, my question
actually pertains to Blue Bird and Blue Satin. Both are blooming at
this time, both look very much alike. In fact, I did photograph and compare
both blooms, but cannot see a difference. They are growing quite on
different sections of the property. The foliage, however, seems to be
the key to the difference.

The foliage on the left is from a plant grown out front. The other is growing
near my office. That little tidbit is actually for my benefit and not of any help
to you, LOL.

I was hoping someone out there may grow both and is able to provide
a bit of input?

Many thanks,
Karen Marie

I don't grow either one, but from looking at the pics of both their foliage in Plant Files, if I had to guess I'd say the leaf on the left is Blue Bird and the leaf on the right is Blue Satin.

I was trying to do that, but I noticed several of the images in
Plant Files were either incorrect, or the camera hue was off. It
is difficult to capture the true color of them.


:-) KM

I was only looking at the leaf shape--leaf color can vary a lot depending on cultural conditions as well as camera/lighting variation, and you didn't post pics of your flowers to try and compare those colors so all I was going on was the leaf shape.

Hi Ecrane, I do appreciate your help. I plucked a bloom from one and
held it next to another, even removed petals and placed them back and
forth but could not tell the difference. Though the soil content could be
very different, the difference in foliage is what seems to be the trick.

Many thanks!