Lavatera Arborea
Lavatera arborea (syn. Malva arborea ) -- Tree Mallow
A magnificent biennial that grows into a small tree — a 2-metre woody structure with large velvety leaves and masses of purplish-pink hibiscus flowers. Thrives in coastal exposure.
About this variety
A biennial that behaves like a small tree. In its second year it puts up a thick woody stem to two metres, clothed in big velvety ivy-shaped leaves and covered from June to September with saucer-shaped purplish-pink flowers like small hibiscus.
It comes from the cliff tops of western Europe and it is built for punishment. Salt-laden wind, thin stony soil, drought on an exposed rock face: it takes all of it, and it actually excretes surplus salt through its leaves, which very few plants can do. In a coastal garden it is one of the very few large flowering plants that thrives rather than merely survives.
Grow it hard. On rich fed ground it makes a tall soft plant that blows over; on poor stony soil it makes a compact one that stands. It develops a deep taproot fast, so sow one seed per deep pot and plant out without disturbing it. And it is a biennial, so the first year is stem and leaf and nothing else, though in a mild coastal garden plants often carry on three or four years. It is now botanically Malva arborea, the genus Lavatera having largely been folded into Malva.
Plant alongside
Lavatera Arborea pairs beautifully with these cottage garden classics
