Planting and Growing Musk Mallows

For gardeners who enjoy growing perennials, planting pink mallow can add an attractive floral element to the garden or yard.

Musk mallows have delicate, papery pink flowers with five petals and appear in clusters. The flowers grow on upright stems and along stalks to a height of 24-36 inches.

Mallow plants are robust and produce a multitude of pink-hued flowers for a showy display of summer blooms. The flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds to the yard.

How to Plant Mallow

• Mallow plants can be purchased from a nursery in spring and planted in almost any kind of soil. A sunny location and rich soils are preferable but hardy musk mallows will grow almost anywhere.

• Mallow seeds can be purchased in seed packets. Seeds should be planted in fall.

• Dried seed pods can be collected in fall from established mallow plants and scattered or direct-sowed where desired.

Mallow Planting Suggestions

Mallows are viewed as an invasive plant but this characteristic makes them a perfect choice if you prefer easy-to-grow flowers and want to curb grass or weeds.

• Musk mallows can be planted to line concrete walls or house foundations and make good background plants to curb weeds in the flower garden.

• Mallows are showy when planted in groupings. Hardy mallows can used be to line driveways and are suitable for borders.

• If you have a large yard and want to cut down on mowing, musk mallows offer a solution: they self-seed, which means that problem areas soon become filled with attractive blooming mallow flowers. The plants grow densely so they help to eliminate troublesome grass.

• Pink musk mallows are a great addition to wildflower meadows. Mallow plants in the wild tend to grow in open places such as pastures or fields.

• Mallows can be planted in front of a hedgerow or in a stand of trees. Their delicate beauty adds a whimsical quality to forest groves.

Fast Facts About Musk Mallows

• Musk Mallows are perennials that have fan-shaped petals.

• Flower colors range from white to pink to lavender.

• Mallow comes in 3 main varieties: Malva moschata, Malva alcea, and Malva tournefortiana.

Mallow Planting Tip

Pink mallows are especially attractive planted on either side of blue delphiniums. The higher delphiniums take center stage, accented by pretty mallows. The contrast between blue and pink flower hues is eye-catching. Both of these flowering plants show impressive growth and are an excellent choice for a colorful garden display.

Musk mallows are an all-round good choice for gardeners who like carefree plants that bloom their hearts out, growing in a number of locations.

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