A Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Flowering Shrubs variety, Hibiscus Red Pillar™ is a showy, deciduous, flowering shrub offering summer interest, blooming from midsummer to fall. Red Pillar has all the attributes of the award-winning Purple Pillar® but its large, sterile, semidouble flowers are dark pink with a rich red center.
A Hibiscus syriacus, commonly called rose of Sharon, Red Pillar is an herbaceous shrub with a vigorous growth rate and a narrow, upright, fastigiate, columnar habit of attractive 3-lobed, coarsely toothed foliage. Growing between 10 to 16 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide, Red Pillar is an excellent specimen or foundation plant but is very effective massed or grouped as a hedge, screen, or a back of the bed or border plant.
Tough and remarkably easy to grow, Hibiscus grows best in sunny locations with fertile, organically rich, moderately moist, well-draining soil, but it tolerates poor soils and some drought and is pH adaptable. Good air circulation is important for disease prevention and for best overall performance. It is fairly pest and disease free; deer resistant; and heat, humidity (with good air circulation), air pollution, and mildly salt tolerant.
Hibiscus Red Pillar has a naturally attractive form and only needs pruning to tidy up its shape or to maintain a desired size. Pruning back stems also encourages more blooms and can increase air circulation within the plant to help prevent disease, but pruning should be done sparingly, after flowering has finished. Removing up to ⅓ of the overall shrub creates a fuller bush with larger blooms. Keep in mind that these shrubs bloom directly on older wood or on shoots that come off old wood.
