The Rural Voice, 2000-03, Page 36INN
11, Seedlings
Your Ontario Source
for quality
Seedlings and Transplants
Conifer, Deciduous, and Wildlife Species
Grown from local seed sources
Reserve your seedlings for Spring 2000 NOW!
A division of
Somerville Nurseries Inc.
P.O. Box 70, Alliston
Ontario L9R 1T9
Tel: 705-435-6258
Fax: 705-435-4230
Email: infoOtreeseedlings.com
Website: www.treeseedlings.com
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Agricultural Society's
HOME, GARDEN
and TRADE SHOW
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April 5
4:59 p.m. - 9:29 p.m.
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34 THE RURAL VOICE
Gardening
Mallow family
adds beauty to
garden
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Gardeners are among the most
generous group of people. I am
reminded of this every time I look
into my garden and see some
wonderful new plants that I have
inherited or traded for.
There is one in particular that we
enjoyed for weeks and I had to do a
little reading to figure out that it was
Sidalcea malviflora or false mallow.
It is one of 20 species of annual or
perennial herbs native to western
North America.
Its common name is
Checkerbloom or Prairie Mallow and
it is a wonderful elegant addition to
your perennial border. An abundance
of spires covered with open-faced •
shell -pink blossoms, not too big to be
showy, but numerous enough not to
be overlooked. The flowers average 4
cm in diameter and new ones open
daily from the bottom to the top. It
grows to a slender height of 2 to 4
feet or 45 to 100 cm. in full sun in
well -drained soil. Straight forward,
nothing fancy to growing
Checkerbloom and it puts on a lively
show for at least two weeks mid
summer.
There is a new variety offered by
McConnell Nurseries of Strathroy
called Sidalcea Elsie Heugh. The
pink blossoms have cut edges making
them a bit on the frilly side.
Aimers offers a smaller variety, Party
Girl. Both are hardy perennials.
The showy mallow family is worth
looking at for more varieties for your
garden. It includes old-fashioned
favourites such as hollyhocks,
mallow marvels, flowering maples
and that wonderful plant we love to
wear, cotton.
The family malvaceae means
mucilaginous or sticky. Helen Field
Fischer, author of The Flower Family
Album summed up the mallow family
this way: "This is the sort of family
which if human, would be the
backbone of the community. It is a