If you're looking to give your garden a more tropical feel, or you even just want to add a little splash of color, you can't go wrong with a Rose of Sharon tree. Also referred to as Hibiscus syriacus, this tree has been called a plant, a shrub and a bush in addition to being called a tree.

The debate over whether Sharon is a tree or a regular plant may be due to the fact that the tree, depending on the variety you select, may be pruned into a tall tree or may be left near the ground as a shrub.

How this tree achieves its status and title as a tree is through pruning. Each Rose of Sharon tree begins life as a shrub and is cultivate through careful and decisive pruning and planning to become a tree with one main trunk. The best time to cultivate your Sharon into a tree is during its first two years.

While many will refer to the plant as a shrub or bush, it can grow to heights of more than eight and even ten feet tall and can even achieve a spread, or width, of four to six feet.

The Rose of Sharon tree is deciduous, so for those gardeners seeking an evergreen plant that will produce color throughout all seasons of the year, this plant is not the way to go. Deciduous plants and trees lose their leaves and flowers in the fall and winter months, leaving the plant entirely bare until the next spring. This also means that this particular plant, beautiful and lush while blooming, does not make an effective privacy hedge, unless you only wish to have privacy during the late spring months and throughout the summer months.

If what you're looking for is an ample splash of color during blooming months, there's no better way to make your garden king of the neighbor than with this queen of the flowering trees. The blooms on the Rose of Sharon tree may come as white, red, light blue or lavender and many of the trees have what are called "double blooms".

But to achieve the beautiful blooms and long-lasting life of this tree, you must plant it correctly. This means providing full sun and well-drained but moist soil. Without full sun, these trees will likely fall victim to fungal damage or root rot, and will ultimately die.

If you take excellent care of your Rose of Sharon tree, it will live a long and beautiful life, offering you multiple layers of blooms each spring and summer. Planting and filling the garden of your dreams--one that will knock your neighbors' socks off each time they walk by your home, is possible, as long as you are willing to take the time to choose the correct plants and truly build your plant kingdom with queen trees like the Sharon and other complementary plantlife. This plant isn't hard to find.