Yesterday, doing several errands, I was driving through the parking lot of our local Walmart when I saw a sight that stopped me dead in my tracks.

Now, normally parking lots are prime examples of bad landscape practices with over-planted and excessively pruned shrubs.  But, what I saw was truly breathtaking.

Purple Blossoms

This fuss-free, shrub was awash with large, purple blossoms. The color was so vibrant and it added a lot of needed color to the parking lot island.

So, do you know what type of shrub this is?

I’ll give you a few hints:

– It is native to Australia.

– It is drought tolerant and thrives in the low desert.

– It grows best in full sun and blooms in spring and occasionally throughout the summer.  

This is a blue hibiscus shrub (Alyogyne huegelii).

This shrub grows fairly large, growing 6 – 8 ft. tall and wide.

While I have only seen it in purple & dark purple, it is also found in pink and white.

What really stood out to me about this shrub is not just its beauty, but the fact that it was thriving in an area where many plants struggle in the hot, reflected heat of a parking lot island.

**How about you? Have you ever seen this shrub before or grown it in your landscape? Please share your experience with this purple-flowering beauty.

Purple Flowering, Beautiful, Fuss-Free Shrub