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Melochia tomentosa

 
Melochia tomentosa
Melochia tomentosa
Melochia tomentosa

Family malvaceae
Life cycle shrub
Flowers pink (spring-fall)
Size to 10'
Light sun
Cultural notes ordinary garden soil; drought-tolerant

Shrub with small pink flowers and fuzzy leaves that emerge apple-green and then turn gray-green. Native to the southern parts of Florida and Texas, and south through the Caribbean and tropical South America. I noticed this growing as a shrubby perennial, less than three feet tall, at Peckerwood Garden, which is where I bought the two plants growing in our garden. It didn't show any inclination to become a taller shrub, and I hoped that's what it would be like in our garden as well. One of the plants was quickly done in by our new puppy, the other one survived through the next year, but didn't really hit its stride – so I wasn't surprised to see that it wasn't inclined to return after the megafreeze wrought by winter storm Uri in Febuary 2021. But then, in early July, long after I had given up and planted something else in its place, a few new plantlets suddenly appeared. I thought they might have been seedlings, but when I dug one up, it was clearly growing from a wandering root of the mother plant. It seems like root cuttings may be a suitable way of propagating this one.

Melochia tomentosa
Fresh, healthy new growth long after its apparent freezy demise

In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: left fence border

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Last modified: June 23, 2024
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