Nick Bailey recommends dreamy mallows for beautiful blooms all summer
Dreamy and delicious members of the mallow family will give you beautiful blooms all summer
Do you remember the joy of eating spongy, sugary marshmallows as a kid? I certainly do, but that was soon quashed by my horrifying realisation that these li le pillows of loveliness were actually made with cow bones! Not so, of course, when marshmallows first appeared.
Originally they were made from the roots of Althaea officinalis
– the true marshmallow. This plant, along with a host of others in the mallow family (Malvaceae) have some really useful facets, which make them invaluable as garden plants.
Firstly, they’re fast. Both the herbaceous and shrubby species in the family are in a rush to grow and flower. Secondly, when they do flower, most of them go on for month after month. And thirdly, they’re a cinch to grow so long as you have blazing sunshine and a fairly free-draining soil.
I’m growing A. officinalis in my garden this year. And while it may be the original source of the sugary confection of the same name, I’m growing it for its form and flowers. It will reach some 1.5m (5ft) this season (1.8-2.1m/6-7ft once established) with a mass of vertical stems furnished with pale, hairy leaves, so is ideal for screening my fences. Blooms appear in midsummer with a very pale pink cup shape that carries a slightly dark centre and set of stamens. An ideal fast-screening plant.
I’m also growing another favourite mallow of mine, Althaea cannabina. It’s quite a different creature, with darker lavenderpink blooms sca ered across an airy and open 1.8m (6ft) plant from July until the frosts. It’s the Verbena bonariensis of the mallow world – a perfect, small, floaty flowered, see-through plant, best suited to growing mid-border.
If these two mallows aren’t familiar to you, the next one will be. Lavatera has been a mainstay in gardens for decades. In fact, I dare say people have bored of its boisterous, pink