Malva sylvestris "Zebrina"

Malva sylvestris "Zebrina"

OhioBreezy,
do you deadhead these? I have 3 plants, 2 look good, but one seems to be all seed heads.

hi there, no I never deadhead them at all, I let them set seed, then when the whole plant dies, I just pull it out (have tons) so I pull some out and lay the actual dead plant with seeds still attached to a new area that I want to grow this in. These start at bottom to flower, when the upper most top ones bloom then they pretty much are done and you just wait for seeds to form.

Thanks for educating me. This is the first year that I have grown these and I wasn't sure exactly what the did.

So they are kind of like a Hollyhock, in the way they grow and bloom.

I guess it's time to collect seed from that one plant. Do you think they would naturalize for me if I just scattered some seed in a pasture area? I'm in zone 5

You are welcome, happy to share (when I know the answer LOL) Yes in a sense they are similar to hollyhock's.

Time to collect when the seed heads are brown, you will notice some of them might already drop some seeds, while others still stick where they should be. I would think you could broadcast them, but, do you mow? this area? if so, you may end up mowing them off and not realizing it. However, we have thrown old torn out ones from the garden into our pasture, and they grew (we don't mow) however, the goats did try to eat them all off! So I would say depends upon what is in the pasture. Your zone is real similar to mine, so I would think they would take ok.

Thanks again,
We don't Mow this area except for a few paths..... We have 20 acres, and it's out in the back area. There are lots of "white" wild flowers, but I've wanted to add some things with color.

Sounds like this will be a good place for me to scatter some of these seeds.

I grew this last year here in zone 5b. It is marketed as a perennial, but I'm not sure if it came back, or self seeded. I grew "Zebrina" and "Mystic Merlin", and now have a lot of little malva's scattered through the garden. I found this year most of my annuals were "volunteers" in this garden

Cats,

Great picture of a very lovely garden. Thanks for letting me know that they reseeded for you.