Hardy Hibiscus, Rose Mallow 'Peppermint Schnapps'

Very rewarding. In about its sixth year in my Zone 6a garden with perhaps 5-6 hours of sunshine on a summer day, it grows to over 6' in ...Read Moreheight. At the back of the flower bed it's striking, with up to a dozen blossoms a day for a very long stretch. It makes me look like a better gardener than I really am.

Adding comment after another 6 years or so. On the best day we get about 25 blossoms. The mid-summer surge is bigger than the one after the Aug-Sept pause in blooming. This year, for the first time ever, one stem put out dark red blooms. It seemed to have escaped the hybridization that had made all the other stems over the years bloom pink like the ones depicted on this site.

I bought 2 Rose Mallow plants from Stop & Shop last year and (not sure but) I think the are the Peppermint Schnapps variety, as this is a...Read Mores close as the pictures match up to what I have. I absolutely LOVE my Rose Mallows! I did not think they would stand up to Connecticut winters but, lo and behold, they came back in Spades! Just 3 stems on a young plant returned as 12 stems and counting! Eight inches of space was NOT enough - 18 inches to 2 feet would have been more like it to start. Ooops. So I'm moving my babies to bigger plots. But they grow like crazy. All I did was put them in Miracle Grow Garden soil in front of my porch and try my best to keep them damp. If they dried out, they were prone to wilting and losing their buds or blooms prematurely. And the variety I have doesn't seem to need as much sun as other members of the hibiscus family. My house faces North and they were in part shade, yet still they thrived. Perhaps mallow is different. I have found wild Seashore Mallow on Fisher's Island growing in a partly shady bog. (I sure hope they're still there and that conservation efforts will be made to keep these rare treasures growing in the wild). Swamp Mallow certainly would be growing in at least half shade. You be the judge. I highly recommend the Rose Mallow for a late summer show-stopper in your garden. I'll always make a spot for these lovely beauties at my place. They make wonderful stars in my border!

Hibiscus Peppermint Schnapps is a stellar plant. Give it decent sun (mine gets about 5 hours a day) and it will show off like the image I...Read More posted on the right. It blooms heavily for about two weeks, takes about two weeks off and them comes back with steady blooms until fall. It's one of the last blooming perennials (along with Monkshood) in our garden. I highly recommend this plant for its color and abundance.