Malva
Malva spp.
Special Features
Typically have lobed, palmate, or heart-shaped leaves that are often soft and velvety. Five-petal flowers in shades of pink, purple, white, or lavender.
Plant Specifications
Our team will help you integrate this plant into your landscape design
Growing Malva on Martha's Vineyard
Malva alcea and its relatives, the mallows, are robust, long-blooming cottage garden perennials that thrive in the well-drained, full-sun conditions of Martha's Vineyard's open border gardens, producing hollyhock-like flowers in pink and white from June through September on vigorous, self-supporting plants that establish quickly in the island's lean, sandy soils. They naturalize readily by self-seeding across the island's residential and estate garden landscapes, particularly in the historic cottage garden settings of Edgartown and Vineyard Haven where they contribute to the informally abundant character of the traditional New England maritime garden.
Deer resistance is generally reliable. Estate Care professionals manage malva's self-seeding habit by editing seedlings to prevent overcrowding while allowing a naturalistic spontaneity to persist within defined garden areas, and they cut plants back hard in autumn to prevent excessive winter re-seeding in more formally managed border programs.
