PLANTED & ENCHANTED: Channel an island look with this mallow
California native flora isn’t considered the cuddliest group of plants, right? These are tough and scratchy types, like Grandma’s old blankets. Some belong to Spartan-sounding “scrub” communities. If they were sponges, they’d be the rough green side, not the forgiving yellow part.
We can look to the Channel Islands for an exception,Lavatera assurgentiflora. You’d hug an island tree mallow before a rose bush or one of those ubiquitous pygmy date palms. (OK, that’s a little weird.) No thorns with this one — just knockout rose-pink flowers and green maplelike leaves.
This might blow up your whole concept of Golden State plants, but island tree mallow (aka malva rosa) can provide a California-style tropical look to a border or small garden. Even the Theodore Payne Foundation drops a tropical reference onits website’s tree mallow rundown, specifically about the hibiscuslike flowers. It reports that the plant is native to the San Clemente and Catalina islands and is naturalized in Central and Southern California. The foundation’s namesake introduced the plant into cultivation in California.
Island tree mallow can reach 10 feet to 12 feet tall and wide. It can be treated as a specimen minitree for a border.Feel free to prune or shape it — it’s for the plant’s own good. My malva rosa is at 4 1/2 feet each way a year after going into the ground at 1 gallon. It shares space in a bed with an inheritedcut-leaf philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum).Try doing that with sages or coffeeberry bushes — “bad contrast” is my presumptive conclusion. A water fountain sits between the mallow and the philodendron. If we had a pool and insisted on native plants, I’d go wild withLavatera assurgentiflora.
The vividly hued flowers are a big draw. Online resources use terms such as cerise, magenta and fuchsia to describe the varied color scheme. Principal colors can vary, as images online show some looking rather lavender. Back to mine: What’s especially neat is the color gradation. The veins, especially near the center, resemble a deep purple, with lighter shades of pink between them. Like hibiscus, a malva rosa flower’sstamenjuts out from the center, a white/lightly yellow-ringed center in its case.
Unfortunately, the flowers don’t age particularly gracefully — the petals lose their stoutness fairly quickly. Another drawback: The foliage (the leaves on mine are 3”) has a tendency to block some of the blooms. Once you lay eyes on one, the last thing you want to see (or not see, for that matter) is shrouded flowers. For their part, the leaves have an appealing soft texture to them,probably thanks to the tiny white hairs on the underside. The shrub’s white base provides contrast to all the green and pink above and beyond it. The plant is considered a spring and summer bloomer, but I still have flowers to come on mine.
Issues? My amateur opinion is that island tree mallows probably fare better when protected from afternoon sun in warm locations.Frost shouldn’t be an issue in North County. Be careful with stressing a youngster too much. Since increasing the watering, my malva rosa’s troublesome leaf yellowing has ceased to be such a concern. While new leaves always kept it from looking bare, the foliage now looks more robust, the growth more full. Lately, I’ve noticed aphids and their rancher ants on parts of it, but they don’t seem to hurt anything. Still, I periodically squirt them with water.This articleaddresses pests such as spider mites and those aphids.
Once established, the island tree mallow is considered drought-tolerant, especially in coastal locations (it is a Channel Islands native, after all), where it can serve as a salt-spray-OK windbreak or hedge. Just to put it out there, although it doesn’t seem worth fretting about:Lavatera assurgentiflorais susceptible to avirusthat affects members of the Malvaceae family.