Pronounciation: MAL-va sub-o-VA-ta

Hardiness zones
Sunset 12-24
USDA 9-11

Landscape Use: Floral accent, oasis landscape design themes, perennial gardens, pollinator gardens.

Form & Character: Upright and informally rounded to mounding, loose and open, colorful, tough, but tender.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, semi-woody, broadleaf, short-lived perennial, moderate to fast growth rate to 3- to 12-feet tall with similar spread, quite variable in final size.

Foliage/Texture: Leaf lamina to 2-inches wide, petioles to 1.5-inches long, lamina somewhat cordate shaped with up to five prominent, but shallow lobes, margins bluntly serrate to dentate, palmate veination, glaucous gray to blue, strongly pubescent to tomentose especially when young; medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers are "hibiscus like" in appearance, borne singly or in pairs in the leaf axils, floral involucre is shorter than the calyx, which has triangular-ovate sepals, becoming united in the fruiting stage, petals number five and range in color from from white, pink to lavender, often bicolor, obcordate to 1-inch long, flowers strongly attract bees and butterflies; fruits are segmented, black when ripe, flat or slightly concave on the back, largely insignificant in appearance.

Seasonal Color: In Phoenix tree mallow flowers from mid spring to early summer. In coastal California, tree mallow can bloow year around.

Temperature: No temperature issues in Phoenix. Heat and cold tolerant.

Light: Partial to full sun, but in Phoenix give care to avoid strong western summer sun and/or western exposures against buildings.

Soil: Well-drained soils are best.

Watering: Water infrequently but deeply, especially during the summer months.

Pruning: Prune primarily in late fall, the extent of which can vary according to desired size thqat the plant will achieve after regrowth during the following winter and spring.

Public service annoucement: Attention all Hort Clods!! Walk away!! DO NOT SHEAR this important pollinator plant!! And BTW, please consider occasionally using a garden rake instead of a gas-powered leaf blower, particularly if it's before 8:00 am.

Propagation: Seed, softwood cuttings.

Disease and Pests: In Phoenix, only root rot if soil is poorly drained and chronically wet.

Additional comments: In this current day of 'landscape legos' where near universally all Phoenix shrubbry is subjected to abuse by the Horticultural Clods of Phoenix, aka Hort Clods (think shrubs made to look like landscape Christmas ornaments), tree mallow is rarely seen. Why? Well, I speculate that its because its difficult to train as a landscape Christmas ornament (think loose and open growth habit) coupled to the fact that it is an ascriber to the James Dean philosophy of 'live fast and die young'. Also problematic is that tree mallow is relatively unattractive when young in a nursery container.

Taxonomic tidbit: Some taxonomists consider Malva subovata subsp. bicolor to be a hybrid cross between Malva subovata and Malva acerifolia.