Mallow, French Hollyhock 'Zebrina' (Malva sylvestris)

Mallow, French Hollyhock 'Zebrina'
Malva sylvestris

My mysterious leafy green stranger transformed himself!

Those are gorgeous! How many plants do you have right there?

Someone gave me two tiny plants at a Texas Round Up this spring, and they're blooming now. I love them and hope they can survive our Gulf Coast heat and humidity.

Hey!

There are just two plants in that picture.... each of them about 3' tall with a stalk about 2" in diameter. Did you notice in my posting about them that I said they were getting leggy? Well, that progressed into the strangest case where the leaves were all dying and the plants were mostly stalk and blossoms! I finally cut them both way back about two weeks ago and they're already leafing out again like crazy. The best guess we can come up with is that they were hit hard by ants, because once the leaves started dropping, you could see ants all over the stalk and branches. I've treated them for ants and am hoping that does the trick. The ants and grasshoppers are insanely strong this summer here; some folks are telling me this is the result of the last few years of serious drought. I have my fingers crossed because those hollyhocks were such a special treat for me since I never intentionally planted them and almost yanked them out when they first sprouted up (thank goodness DGers told me what I had). Maybe I should put a picnic basket out there to distract the ants. :) Shari

P.S.

Jo, it was terrifically hot here last summer (90s at least from July thru mid September with a couple of weeks in the 100s) and, as always, very humid. And this summer's shaping up the same way. These plants just went nuts last summer and kept on growing all through the fall and winter til they just exploded this spring. Did really really well til the ants struck. And they're in a location in our yard that gets full sun all day long, no shade whatsoever and they took very little watering and no other special treatment. But that said, the difference in temp and/or humidity between our two areas may be enough to be a problem because another DGer from Florida said she'd never had success with them down there.

I surely wish you well because they're so, so pretty. All of our neighbors were tickled by getting vases of them--they make such a beautiful stalk in arrangements. Good luck; I'm crossing fingers for yours, too.

Thanks! My two plants are growing straight up and not branching, so I'm thinking that maybe I should prune them.

Hope you have beautiful blooms all summer!

Jo

I'm curious... i see this is a Bi-annual or Perennial and zone 5-10

what would it be in zone5? I'd love for this to be a perennial opposed to a Bi-annual.

it is very pretty.... but i think i need to move mine as there are too many taller plants smothering it.