shines ,even in winter!!...

Have you ever noticed how you tend to ignore some plants,not for any particular reason other than you've not bothered growing them!
Well, last year I had some veriagated tree mallow seeds from Lilleth via a R.R.they were dutifully sown, and a couple planted out at the end of last summer.
Not having ventured out in the garden much over the cold season, I didn't really notice them, until one day the sun was shining right on them like a spot light, and it literally shone out from amongst the gloom.Now, it's getting bigger and bigger, and in the afternoon literally glows in the corner. I'm so impressed,i've started some more seedlings this spring, in case the other one dies at the end,as I've no idea how long they last.
it's a plant that wouldn't have looked at before, but one that I'll keep on growing.

Don't you just love it! The little crystaline hairs on the leaves make it glisten. How tall has it gotten? Mine varied from 2ft. to 8 ft depending on light and soil condidtions and I think I loved the leaves even more than the flowers.

Seeds are easy to collect and they put out lots of seed!

It's about 4/5 ft tall at the mo zanymuse.how long do they last for? What are the flowers like? Before I had seeds for this I'd never even seen it before,can't understand why it's not grown more.it'd even be good in a textured garden.

There seems to be some debate as to whether it is a biennial or a perinnial. Dor me it was definately a biennial. The flowers are a medium purple with darker veins
and are not very large but they make up for their small size with quantity and will burst out all over the plant. The color of the flowers really stands out against those amazing leaves.

I sent out over 150 seed packets of these 2 years ago and all those seeds came off a single plant.

A lot of people will not bother to grow biennials because they don't want to wait that long for flowers but this one is worth it just for the leaves. I wish I still had room to grow this one. When the PDB gets back on like you can see a picture there of the flowers.

http://www.meden.demon.co.uk/Malvaceae/Lavatera/galleryA.html#mauritanica

This link will show you the flowers :~)

This message was edited Friday, May 9th 4:18 AM

thanks for that zanymuse,i'll grow just about anything,I'm fairly patient, and it's great when something flowers for the first time, especially if you've had to wait a few years for it. Makes you appreciate it all the more.

LOL You are welcome! This first showed up at my old place as a volunteer and I had no idea what it was until someone here ID'd it for me. It would self seed in strange places and I would move it while it was small to where I wanted it to be. One year I planted a bunch of them out by the driveway and it looked really great for 2 years!