Botanical name: Malva moschata
Folk names: Bread and cheese, fairy cheeses.

Type: Perennial

Wildlife: Pollen for short-tongued bumblebees and many species of hoverfly. Bees get covered in its pollen! Caterpillar food plant of the  Mallow moth (Laventia clarvaria).

Flowers: Mid June to August

Decorative merit: Pinnately lobed upper leaves on stems that gracefully lean against and around other plants. Usually pink, or white saucer-shaped flowers with five deeply notched petals, in great profusion. Said to have a delicate musky perfume in warm weather and when leaves are handled although I haven’t detected it! Size and spread 30-75cm high. Seeds are easy to collect and germinate, so a great one for children.

Where: Sun or part-shade. Middle of borders, mini meadows and gravel gardens. Happy in well-drained soil. Try in a container: this plant is pretty happy anywhere in a garden!

Folklore: In the Victorian Language of Flowers it is said to symbolise being consumed by love, persuasion, and weakness. Alice E. Gillington’s The Rosy Musk-Mallow (Romany Love-Song): “The rosy musk-mallow blooms where the south wind blows, O my gypsy rose! In the deep dark lanes where thou and I must meet.” Malva means soft; or emollient. The ancient Greeks used it to decorate friends’ graves.  The musky scent of the flowers and leaves is said to be enhanced when brought indoors. Once an ingredient in soothing syrups and ointments, and valued as an aphrodisiac.

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank