Today we will ramble through a bit of Latin naming while we give some practical information about several wonderful plants. What is a hibiscus?

I can quickly think of three distinct but related shrubby plants with saucer shaped flowers. One is a tropical used as a houseplant. The other two have been focal points in my August garden.

In the name game, hibiscus is the plant genus. If I move up a step on the naming ladder I come to the Malvaceae family which adds plants with similar flowers like hollyhocks and malvas. Moving down the ladder we get more specific as we add the species name.

Many plants have been found in the wild or are selections of plants found in the wild. If an x appears in the Latin name it is hybrid created in a controlled breeding program. We get many new plants as random seedlings or mutations on existing plants.

The taller of the two plants in my garden is Hibiscus syriacus. Most of us will know it as Rose of Sharon. This is a relic from grandmother's garden that is experiencing a rebirth,

It is a stiff upright multi-stemmed shrub, which blooms from late July into September. It can also be a trained standard. That's when you keep only one stem to make a shrub look like a small tree. Watching both forms, I believe you get more flower power from the free growing form. Besides, it is a lot easier.

Colors include white, reddish pinks, purples and even a near blue. In the plant world, as you know, most blues look a bit purple. So does this one. Some have a dark eye in the center of the flower. Flowers can be single, double or somewhere in between.

According to the literature, late winter pruning will increase growth and flowering. My head high plants are only three years old and have not seen the pruners yet.

The other hibiscus in my garden is the die-back shrub with the near dinner plate sized flowers. With this one there is a large number of species and hybrids. Colors favor red, pink and white.

You can find varieties that will be waist high and others that will grow past your head. They do this quickly, as they are very late to emerge in the spring. I don't stake the tall ones but occasionally will pinch when they are a foot or two tall to encourage branching.

As I said, this one is a die-back shrub. I always leave the dead stems as a marker until the new growth appears. This year with the cool spring they were still emerging in early June. Yet by August 1 they were waist to head high and in bloom.

Several days ago I saw someone trying to buy the bluish Rose of Sharon. To him they looked right but he was troubled that they were called hibiscus. That's the reason for the Latin, as confusing as it may seem. Common names often are a path to even greater confusion.