Lavatera
Hardy Annual.
Three to four feet.
Flowers rose (also a white variety), July and
August.
A worthy representative of the Mallow tribe.
A well-grown specimen will reach a height of four
feet, stout and branches, and covered with funnel-shaped
flowers three inches in diameter.
The colour is a clear shining pink or rose, with
a suspicion of the mauve under-tint of the wild
Mallow. (How many people remember that “mauve”
means “mallow”?)
The texture of the petals is of a distinctively
silky quality.
The Lavatera makes fine clumps for the mixed border,
but to do itself justice it should stand by itself
in beds or patches from two yards square to any
size that can be provided.
The seed should be sown in drills, about half
an inch deep at the end of March, the drills a
foot apart.
The seedlings must be thinned to a foot asunder
in the rows.
This will give a noble mass of bloom; but if specimen
plants are required, each should have two feet
square to itself.
The “type” is Lavatera
trimestris; there is an “improved”
variety offered by some seeds men which really
has a bolder habit and larger flowers.
The flowers of the white variety are very beautiful;
they may appear as a contrast to the rose flowers,
but should not be mixed up with them.
Unfortunately, the Lavatera suffers severely from
the Mallow disease.
If once the fungus appears in a garden, it may
become impossible to flower the plant at all.
The signs of the complaint are a yellowing and
drooping of the leaves, and black patches on the
stems, which rapidly decay.
In some seasons when the spring-sown beds have
been entirely destroyed, self-sown plants appearing
about June and flowering in September have altogether
escaped.
There may be here indications of causes, and perhaps
of cure, worth the attention of garden-sanitarians.
See also - Tree Mallow
|
