Anisodontea, African Mallow, Cape African Queen, Cape Mallow 'El Rayo'

This is becoming quite a popular plant at specialist plant sales in the uk, i have grown it for several years and found it to be hardy an...Read Mored come through snow at about minus 5-7c with no problem despite reading its only frost hardy. They can take dry conditions and and probably dont like winter wet although mine was ok in clay soil with no special drainage or grit added.
Its very fast growing, cuttings rooting easily and reaching 5 foot in under 3 months and filling out to a meter across or more the next year. They do benefit therfore from pruning to keep them bushy.
I have found however that el rayo and the capensis species both suffer from sudden unexplained death where within a week a healthy established plant will turn yellow and suddenly die with no sign of pest damage or vine weevils on the roots. I can only guess that this is part of their life cycle as they root and grow very quickly then die unexpectedly.