From: ceci@lysator.liu.se (Cecilia Henningsson)
Subject: Re: Lavetera (hooked on mallows you too?)
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1993 17:14:05 GMT

ctyuan@sedona.EBay.Sun.COM (Chi-Tao Yuan) writes:
>Sorry for troubling the net for yet another question. I would like to
>receive advice on how to grow and propagate lavetera. Also, how high
>does it grow up to?

Depends on which Lavatera you mean. I have two kinds at home, Lavatera
trimestris and L. mauritiana (syn. L. cretica, L. sylvestris
var. mauritiana). Both of these are trouble-free annuals, which give a
fine show in late summer to early autumn (fall).

L. trimestris is fairly common. It comes in pink aswell as white
selections, and is usually rated as either 60cm or 1m high. In my
climate, which is comparable to that of Boston, we sow L. trimestris
out of doors with the rest of the annuals. It doesn't need staking,
even in my windy garden. It's suitable as a cutflower, and has a neat
habit. The only trouble I've had with them are some aphids. 

L. cretica isn't half as common as L. trimestris. The flowers are a
dark reddish purple with darker bluish purple nectar guides. L.
cretica grows tall! Very tall! I had to cut off mine, because I didn't
have tall enough stakes. That's not really a problem, because when you
lop off the top, they start to branch instead, so you still get lots
of flowers. It needs staking, and isn't suitable as a cutflower
because the flowers appear at the leaf nodes along the stem with
fairly long intervalls. In my climate L. cretica has to bee sown
indoors. L. cretica blooms a few weeks earlier than L. trimestris. It
attracts bumble-bees in scores. Aphids don't seem interested in it,
though. One drawback, apart from the tall stakes you need, is that you
have to remove yellowing leaves from the lower parts of the plants
from time to time, and the wilted flowers fall off, and are really
gross. I've squished several, thinking they were snails. The dye in
the flowers is very hard to remove.

If you like mallows (Malvacea, like the above two), I'd recommend
looking at Malva species like M. trifida (annual, and worth growing
just because of the name), M. moschata and M. officinalis. They all
come in pink and white.

Has anyone here tried Kitaibelia vitifolia? I've sown seeds from
Chiltern. *guilty look*

--Ceci, mallow freaks anonymous
--
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