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08-07-2005, 08:49 PM

In message , writes
wrote:
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
In message , writes
This sounds like mallow as opposed to any sort of violet.

It's the bane of our lives here in Suffolk nowadays.

Malva sylvestris or some other species? Round this neck of the woods
Malva sylvestris is rose-flowered, not violet-flowered.

Well the stuff we call mallow is most certainly violet, quite a pale
violet admittedly.

Walking past one just now I suppose you could call it pink/rose,
though others are definitely more violet.

The cultivated forms are rose, violet, magenta, white or blue (but the
blues may be hybrids - all the blues I've seen have been sterile).
Around here the wild forms are pretty consistently rose, tho' the colour
depends somewhat on the light - I turned my head to look at a 'Bibor
Felho' (which is magenta), and in the evening light it was looking red.

It doesn't seem to be a problem round here - it's mainly a plant of
sunny hedges and verges. (But the 3m plus specimen is by a canal
towpath.)

I have difficulty overwintering Malva sylvestris, tho' I don't suppose
last summer's rust massacre helped.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley