Annual mallows to sow now
Not all mallows are shrubby or herbaceous; there are several annual forms just as floriferous as their woody brethren. They can be sown direct into border gaps over the next few weeks and will flower prolifically from late June until the frosts with big, glossy, hibiscus-looking blooms. There are many varieties of the annual Lavatera trimestris. Most seed companies carry them. But L. trimestris ‘Loveliness’, with its deep rose-pink flowers, is a favourite of mine. There are also several mixes with pale and dark pinks mixed with white. They all reach around 90cm (3ft), but the real showstopper of annual mallows is Malope trifida ‘Vulcan’. It too can be sown direct over the next few weeks and will give rise (in about nine weeks) to huge, striped, magenta and pink flowers on a 60cm (2ft) plant. What makes it really special is as the petals overlap at the base of each flower, they leave a series of oval gaps which show off the green calyx beneath. Truly beautiful, exotic looking and very easy. blooms and slightly boisterous growth, as I don’t see it grown as commonly today as during my mallow-munching years.
But the good news is that the modern varieties of lavatera are much more interesting, well coloured and even more floriferous than their predecessors. Lavatera ‘Barnsley Baby’ is just such a plant. It’s compact at 60cm (2ft) tall, so perfect in pots or border fronts where it churns out a succession of baby pink, dark-centred blooms through summer and autumn. On a larger scale and even more floriferous is anisodontea ‘El Rayo’. It grows to 2.5m (8¼ft), forming an open shrub dripping with pink, dark-eyed flowers all year for three to four years until it burns itself out.