Beautiful, salt-tolerant hibiscus-shaped pink blossoms
Marsh Mallow is one of my very favorite late summer plants. On Dewees, it grows in the fresh (ish) water wetlands behind the dunes. Since our building setbacks can be far from the front beach, we have several boardwalks that cross wetlands and give us the chance to be completely surrounded by these lovely blooms.
Carpenter bees love this plant, along with hibiscus turret bees and the endangered southern plains bumble bee. Each flower blooms for a single day.
Gathering seeds to grow your own.
When the plant has seeds ready to be harvested, the heads will be brown and the edges will be open slightly. When you wrap your fingers around the seed pod gently, it should drop the seeds easily. Every fall, I gather these and put them in packets to share seeds with local neighborhoods that need wetland plants. The Marsh Project and the Carolina Ocean Alliance even maintain Little Free Seed Libraries with the Creek Collective on the Charleston Peninsula.
How to plant your seeds
I usually store these seeds in the refrigerator over the winter, and before planting, I put them between layers of sandpaper and scuff them up a little. You can plant them directly in the ground (fall or spring) and water well. Or, you can use seed starting trays and get them going before you plant them in the ground.
- Full sun with moist soil
- flowers bloom for a day and close up at night
- Pollinators love it, and so do pollinator predators.
- before planting, try soaking seeds for 24 hours or roughly sanding seeds with sandpaper.
- Plant seeds in spring and make sure they are watered.
- or sow seeds indoors in late winter or spring after the last frost.
Pollinators using this plant:
This cute little black racer hid in the blossoms for a nap!
