It is upright and vase-shaped, reaching 2–4 m (7–13 feet) in height, bearing large trumpet-shaped flowers with prominent yellow-tipped white stamens.

However, numerous buds produced on the shrub's new growth provide prolific flowering over a long summer blooming period.

They split over the course of the dormant season and spread their easily germinating seeds around the base of the parent plant, thus forming colonies with time.

[14] Though it has no fall color and can be stiff and ungainly if badly pruned, H. syriacus remains a popular ornamental shrub today, with many cultivars.

[15] Hibiscus syriacus is fairly easily propagated from either seeds, with variable results, or by layering or cuttings, cloning the original.

The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:[19] Hibiscus syriacus, also known as the Korean rose, is the national flower of South Korea.

Professor emeritus at Ohio State University, Chan E. Park, notes that, to many Koreans, the flower was a symbol of resistance to Japanese colonial rule.

[31] South Korean law also defined the flagpole used for hoisting national flag should be surmounted by a ball that has the shape of the flower's calyx.

(sic)[33] By the end of the 17th century, some knew it to be hardy: Gibson, describing Lord Arlington's London house noted six large earthen pots coddling the "tree hollyhock", as he called it, "that grows well enough in the ground".