How to Grow Checkerbloom (Sidalcea Malviflora)

Sidalcea, or checkerbloom, is an easy-care, summer-flowering perennial (meaning it comes back year after year). It looks like a short version of hollyhock and comes in shades of pink (Elsie Heugh is pale pink) and red (Croftway Red). It blooms all summer long.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Choosing Checkerbloom

1. Buy Sidalcea in nurseries in spring and summer.
2. Look for larger containers - 6-inch or 1-gallon - to get a good-size plant.
3. Look for healthy growth with no wilted leaves.
4. Check cultivar (variety) names to get the color you want, or wait until the plants are in bloom at the nursery so that you can see for yourself what the blooms look like.

Planting Checkerbloom

5. Plant in a sunny spot in well-drained soil.
6. Add a little organic fertilizer to the planting hole.
7. Loosen up the roots, if they are pot-bound, with a hand cultivator - a tool that looks like a claw - before planting.
8. Water weekly throughout the first summer.

Caring for Checkerbloom

9. Cut back spent flowers for more blooms.
10. Cut back old stems to the base of leaves in fall or late winter using bypass pruners.
11. Use a light application of organic fertilizer in spring.

Tips & Warnings

• Japanese beetles may be a problem in some regions - they eat the flowers. Handpick the pests for best and safest results.

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