Tuesday's Terrace: Espaliered Hibiscus

I was walking through Graduate Hospital, a neighborhood in central Philadelphia, this past weekend when I momentarily froze in front of this Hibiscus syriacus (rose-of-sharon) beautifully fan-espaliered against the wall of a corner rowhouse. The owner had painstakingly pruned and spread the branches, pruned off extraneous shoots, and kept the bed tidy (except for an Agastache beginning to emerge from the right). Such visual treatment forces you to rethink and admire a rather humdrum shrub not always given its admiration out of flower. ~ Eric