Prairie mallow 'Party Girl'
Sidalcea 'Party Girl' ·
Slender spires of silky, bright rose-pink flowers with white centres, like miniature hollyhocks, in midsummer.
- Size
- 3 ft tall, 18 in wide
- Zones
- 5 to 7
- Light
- Full sun to part sun
- Flowers
- Late June to early August
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around prairie mallow 'Party Girl'
The planner designed this bed around prairie mallow 'Party Girl' 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 prairie mallow 'Party Girl' stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Prairie mallow 'Party Girl' × 3, pink
- 2 Lingonberry × 8, pink
- 3 Sea thrift × 12, white
- 4 Garden phlox 'David' × 3, white
- 5 Silver sage × 1, silver leaves
- 6 Frikart's aster 'Monch' × 3, lavender
- 7 Surprise lily × 10, pink
- 8 Grecian windflower × 12, blue
Why this plant
- The only spires. The others are bells, globes, dense clusters and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 3 ft it is one of the taller 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 Frikart's aster 'Monch' (2½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 3 plants in one clump. A single spire is too slight to hold a place alone, so here the accent is a clump.
Why now
- In flower for 7 weeks. From late June to early August.
- Fills a gap. For two of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
Planned as a cottage garden: 23 of the 30 plants (77%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. Pink runs through the planting: 3 of the 7 kinds grown for their flowers have it. The most in flower at one time is 4 kinds, from early August.
The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 8 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 prairie mallow 'Party Girl' goes in a border
At 3 ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is medium tall (2½ to 3 ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
Hollyhock spires at half the height and with no rust. It is at its best in cool-summer climates such as the Pacific Northwest, and fades in heat and humidity.
- Slender spires in the middle of a border
- Cool-summer gardens
- Cutting
What to plant with prairie mallow 'Party Girl'
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Lady's mantle: in flower together for two weeks, from late June; a low mound at the foot of its spires; low enough (18 in) to stand in front of it.
- Shasta daisy 'Becky': in flower together for six weeks, from early July.
- Garden phlox: in flower together for four weeks, from mid July; happy in the same moist soil.
Questions about prairie mallow 'Party Girl'
Does prairie mallow 'Party Girl' need sun or shade?
Prairie mallow 'Party Girl' grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day) and part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun).
It wants soil that stays evenly moist, rich in organic matter, and a good soak in dry spells.
What zones does prairie mallow 'Party Girl' grow in?
USDA zones 5 to 7. It is hardy to zone 5, which means it survives winter nights down to about −10 °F (−23 °C).
Above zone 7 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 prairie mallow 'Party Girl' flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers late June to early August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 5 | Late June to early August |
|---|---|
| Zone 6 | Late June to early August |
| Zone 7 | Late June to early August |
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 prairie mallow 'Party Girl' 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 3 ft (90 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many prairie mallow 'Party Girl' 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 three in one group.
Is there a native plant like prairie mallow 'Party Girl'?
Prairie mallow 'Party Girl' is not native to North America. These North American natives come closest to doing its job:
- Great blue lobelia: the same job in a bed and the same size; flowers early August to mid September, blue, not pink.
- Blazing star 'Kobold': the same job in a bed and the same flowering time; 12 in shorter, purple, not pink.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
What flowers after prairie mallow 'Party Girl'?
Prairie mallow 'Party Girl' is over by early August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Japanese anemone: from mid August to early October, 3 ft tall.
- Lilyturf: from early August to mid September, 16 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Hosta 'Guacamole': from early August to late August, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does prairie mallow 'Party Girl' look like in winter?
Prairie mallow 'Party Girl' 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.
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3 ft (90 cm) tall, 18 in (45 cm) wide
- Plant
- 16 in (40 cm) apart
- Height class
- Medium tall (2½ to 3 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Late June to early August; upright spires; pink
- Leaves
- Medium texture, herbaceous; green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 5 to 7
- Light
- Full sun, part sun
- Soil
- Rich, evenly moist
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- Light, in spring
Not yet checked against an outside reference: its figures rest on general horticultural knowledge. 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.