Hollyhock mallow
Malva alcea 'Fastigiata' · Malvaceae
A narrow, upright column of stems covered in rose-pink, saucer-shaped flowers from midsummer until autumn.
- Size
- 3½ ft tall, 18 in wide
- Zones
- 4 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Late June to mid September
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around hollyhock mallow
The planner designed this bed around hollyhock mallow when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) cottage garden in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 966 that suit those conditions, and says below why hollyhock mallow stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Hollyhock mallow × 4, pink
- 2 Winter heath × 5, white
- 3 Cottage pinks × 15, pink
- 4 Brown-eyed Susan × 3, yellow
- 5 Silver sage × 1, silver leaves
- 6 Beardtongue 'Husker Red' × 3, white
- 7 Schubert's allium × 3, pink
- 8 Grecian windflower × 12, blue
Why this plant
- The only open bowls. The others are bells, daisies, spires and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 3½ ft it is among the tallest plants here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to beardtongue 'Husker Red' (2½ ft) and brown-eyed Susan (4 ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 4 plants in 2 places. An accent is a punctuation mark: the repeat along the bed gives it rhythm.
Why now
- In flower for 13 weeks. From late June to mid September.
- Fills a gap. For three of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
Planned as a cottage garden: 31 of the 31 plants (100%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. Low plants run along 90% of the front edge: silver sage, cottage pinks and winter heath. Cool colours (pink and blue) with yellow as the warm note, and white to calm things between them.
The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 6 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where hollyhock mallow goes in a border
At 3½ ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is moderately tall (3 to 4 ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
It gives the look of a hollyhock in a smaller, bushier plant that flowers for three months and seldom gets rust. Short-lived, like its relatives, but it seeds.
- Narrow vertical colour
- Cottage gardens
- Long summer flowering
What to plant with hollyhock mallow
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Russian sage: in flower together for 10 weeks, from mid July.
- Globe thistle: in flower together for six weeks, from mid July; bold leaves against its medium ones.
- Shasta daisy 'Becky': in flower together for 10 weeks, from early July.
Questions about hollyhock mallow
Does hollyhock mallow need sun or shade?
Hollyhock mallow grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants ordinary well-drained soil, of average fertility, and little watering once settled.
What zones does hollyhock mallow grow in?
USDA zones 4 to 8. It is hardy to zone 4, which means it survives winter nights down to about −20 °F (−29 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does hollyhock mallow flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers late June to mid September. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 4 | Early July to mid September |
|---|---|
| Zone 5 | Late June to mid September |
| Zone 6 | Late June to mid September |
| Zone 7 | Late June to mid September |
| Zone 8 | Late June to mid September |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should hollyhock mallow be planted?
16 in (40 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 18 in (45 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3½ ft (100 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many hollyhock mallow plants do I need?
At 16 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 7 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 8 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 21 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used four in two groups.
Is there a native plant like hollyhock mallow?
Hollyhock mallow is not native to North America. These North American natives come closest to doing its job:
- Spotted bee balm: the same job in a bed, the same flowering time and the same colour; 16 in shorter, 4 in narrower.
- Great blue lobelia: the same job in a bed; 8 in shorter, flowers early August to mid September.
- Blazing star: the same job in a bed; 4 in narrower, flowers mid July to mid August.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
Will hollyhock mallow spread?
It seeds itself about; the risk of it taking over is moderate. Short-lived, and self-seeds around the parent. Pull unwanted seedlings.
What flowers after hollyhock mallow?
Hollyhock mallow is over by mid September. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Montauk daisy: from mid September to late October, 3 ft tall.
- Aromatic aster 'Raydon's Favorite': from mid September to early November, 3 ft tall.
What does hollyhock mallow look like in winter?
Hollyhock mallow dies down to the ground and there is nothing to see until spring. The old stems can be cut in autumn, or left until spring as shelter for overwintering insects.
More Malva
- Musk mallow Malva moschata
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3½ ft (100 cm) tall, 18 in (45 cm) wide
- Plant
- 16 in (40 cm) apart
- Height class
- Moderately tall (3 to 4 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Late June to mid September; open bowls; pink
- Leaves
- Medium texture, herbaceous; green
- Shape
- Upright, self-seeding
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 4 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Malvaceae
Checked against VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.