Summer Blooming Natives - Meet the Mallows

This is the best time of the year to be in the garden. Spring can be pretty with the wild flowers and bulbs but Summer is when the true performers take the stage. Coming from the great southern (and dry) continent, I can appreciate a plant that revels in a sunny, waterless environment and doesn't like to be fussed with. Each year I add a new Mallow to my garden and and marvel at how it unpacks it's bag, kicks the nerdy plant from the top bunk and settles in to it's new home.

Thankfully Jess has stepped up to the plate(again) and come up with some great descriptions that will have you wondering why these little beauties have never made it into your garden. As an aside, do outsourcing bloggers still count as bloggers? Has anybody started my facebook page yet?

Malacothamnus fasciculatus
Chaparral Mallow

This is one of those plants that responds to the harshness of its environment by producing a profusion of sweet and dainty flowers. The blossoms may appear any time from spring through summer, and a shrub in full flower is a stunning sight. Individual flowers are sturdy cups of pristine pink, tightly clustered along upright stalks, which make a very stylish addition to cut flower arrangements. This fast-growing shrub reaches several feet wide and somewhere between 3 and 15’ high, depending on conditions. It can be pruned to keep the form dense. Occasional deep water may improve appearance and flowering, but once established, this mallow stands up to heat and drought. It can be used for a splash of prettiness in a neglected area, as an informal and unusually attractive hedge, or as a focal point. The densely felted leaves and stems are silver-gray to almost white, making this plant one of the best contrast options among dark green shrubs and under plantings like Ceanothus and Grindelia. Whenever flowering, this mallow will be abuzz with bumblebees, butterflies and birds

Sphaeralcea ambigua
Desert Globe Mallow

Brighten your garden with the poppy-orange blossoms of this mallow any time of the year. This 2-3’ shrub will glow like the sun when decked out in full bloom, usually in spring and summer, with sporadic bursts of flowers appearing throughout the year in mild climates. The flowers are rounded cups lining the many upright stalks—a few will never be missed if you take them inside to enjoy in a vase. The crinkled, cool gray leaves provide a pleasing contrast to the immaculately-formed, warm-toned blossoms. Desert Globe Mallow lends beauty and cheer to dry plantings of many kinds and does not complain about the hottest, harshest conditions. It may benefit from occasional summer water to mimic desert rain, and will tolerate clay on a slope, but only if not watered too heavily. This shrub is a willing re-seeder, so may establish a colony over time, if desired, and its warm flower shades are variable, so that mass plantings create a dazzling palette. Pollinating birds and insects will welcome the gorgeous blossoms wherever and whenever they appear.

Sidalcea malachroides
Mapleleaf Checkerbloom

This is the mallow for the woodland parts of your garden. Native to northern coastal areas of the state, this small semi-woody shrub prefers shade and some summer moisture, and makes a useful and lush-looking filler or ground cover. Its flowers are white with touches of pink or purple—understated but attractive. The rich green leaves may be mistaken for maples or currants. Good companions include ferns, heucheras, and irises. Mapleleaf Checkerbloom is now rare in its native habitat, so giving it a chance to flourish in your garden is doing it a good turn.

Sidalcea malviflora ‘Palustre’
Dwarf Checkerbloom

There are many variations on the lovely checkerbloom theme and this selection boasts large, glossy leaves of deepest green, and showy sprays of flowers in deep rose-pink. The flowers, which emerge in spring and continue well into summer if given moderate water, resemble hollyhocks and are arranged in bundles at the ends of foot-long flower stems. These stems are somewhat relaxed in habit, and the leaves are low and sprawling, making the plant perfect for lining paths or spilling from pots.

The flowers’ deep pink mixes beautifully with the cool blues of blue witch or foothill penstemon, and the dark leaves can be used with low-growing silver toned natives like Lessingia or Artemisia pycnocephala to weave a stunning green and gray patchwork. If allowed to dry out in summer, checkerbloom will say goodbye until rain returns. It is adaptable to various soils, and can handle full sun, but also performs well in a surprising amount of shade.

Sphaeralcea
'Childerley'

This stunning mallow is thought to be a cultivar of Sphaeralcea munroana, a native to the northeastern parts of California. Whereas munroana’s flowers are bright orange, Childerley’s are apricot, with a deep red/burgundy center and nectar lines. As with other mallows, the flower shape resembles hollyhocks, and this plant would look very much at home in an English cottage garden with a white trellis and a bench. It is tougher that its cultivated appearance suggests, however, and is easy and trouble-free in any sun-drenched garden. Some summer water will keep the peachy blooms coming for months on end, spring to fall. It is a worthy member of a mass mallow planting, blending beautifully with the pinks and oranges of its relatives, or can add a welcome splash of color in areas where most plants are resting through summer. Pollinators will appreciate its summer-long nectar, and passersby will appreciate its cottage charm.

If anyone has a definative origin for this plant I would love to hear about it.

Sphaeralcea fulva
'La Luna'

Native to Northern Baja California.

This lovely shrub has a densely mounding habit, topping out at about 3’ high with arching branches and roughly an equal spread. Like its mallow relatives, it is very heat and drought tolerant, but this selection also accepts wetter and cooler winters than some desert species. Use it to add a delicate touch to xeric plantings and enjoy its cool white blooms through the year. Snip a few branches for an elegant and long-lasting display in cut arrangements. As its name implies, La Luna has round flowers of bright white; they can be especially highlighted if planted where they will catch the light of the actual moon. The green-gray leaves and orangey stems round out a unique and striking color scheme. Though this mallow doesn’t require irrigation when established, it will tolerate some, especially on well-drained sites. Whenever blooms are present, so will be bees, butterflies and birds.

Sphaeralcea phillipiana
Trailing Mallow

This plant has sometimes been labeled in the nursery trade as Californian, but has now been identified as South American. For gardeners who are not California native-purists, it has great value as a long-blooming, showy and easy groundcover. Only 12 – 18” in height, it spreads 4-5’ wide, blanketing the ground in a Christmas-color scheme for months on end. The green leaves are lightly felted, deeply divided and veined, and the cupped crimson flowers adorn the plant in multitudes through the summer, and on and off through the year in mild climates. Trailing Mallow loves full sun and is drought tolerant and carefree, but doesn’t mind some summer water if its neighbors require it. It benefits a variety of pollinating insects and birds.