Anisodontea Cotton Candy Pink - Cape mallow

Anisodontea ‘Cotton Candy Pink’ is a compact and bushy shrub, which, in mild climates, flowers for almost half the year. Its beautiful, evergreen, glossy green foliage serves as a setting for the single, light pink flowers, enhanced by subtle, more pronounced streaks. Not exceeding 1 m in height, this upright plant can be used in mixed borders and can even be used to form low hedges. Loving the sun, it is drought-resistant and performs particularly well in the South of France. Its compactness also allows it to be easily grown in a decorative pot in regions where the winter is too harsh for it.

Anisodontea belongs to the Malvaceae family, rich with over 240 genera and 4200 species, distributed in most of the world's climates, except those that are too cold. It encompasses plant forms as diverse as the baobab, giant of the savannas, cotton, of considerable economic importance, or countryside mallows. Many Malvaceae are prized by gardeners of all kinds, such as Fremontodendron californicum, a shrub with bright yellow flowers, or hardy or tropical Hibiscus.
The Anisodontea genus comprises 22 species of shrubs, all native to South Africa, whose flowers resemble miniature Hibiscus. 'Cotton Candy Pink' is a horticultural cultivar of Cape Mallow with very attractive flowers. It is part of a small range called Carnival Lights, with rapid growth and long-lasting flowering. This perennial, evergreen shrub forms a dense, upright clump, which quickly reaches its mature size of approximately 1 m in height and 60 cm in width. The numerous thin, upright, medium green stems bear small leaves of the same colour, with a satiny surface. The alternate leaves, borne on short petioles, measure from 4 to 6 cm in length and are generally trilobed, often with two small, faint additional lobes at the base.
Flowering begins in June, or even May, depending on the climate, and continues late into the season, until October. Typical of Malvaceae, the flowers are single, composed of 5 petals which slightly overlap each other to form a widely open and spreading, practically circular corolla, 4 to 5 cm in diameter. The soft pink petals are delicately veined with a deeper pink, tending towards fuchsia. The base of the petals and the heart are also a darker pink, creating a very slight contrast in tone, giving the flower a romantic charm. The darker green background of the foliage particularly highlights the solitary flowers, well distributed over the surface of the vegetation.

Anisodontea ‘Cotton Candy Pink’ is a very attractive plant, perfect in a pot to adorn a terrace throughout summer. Pair it with a Kumquat Fukushu, a small citrus tree with oval orange fruits, both decorative and entirely edible, to create an exotic scene. In southern regions where it can be planted in the ground, place it alongside other plants evocative of distant skies, such as Callistemons, or Bottlebrushes, so nicknamed due to their often brightly coloured bottlebrush-like flower spikes. To also play on foliage contrasts, plant a Lagerstroemia indica 'Black Solitaire', a Crape Myrtle with burgundy-black foliage, which enhances very pale pink, almost white flowers, which will pair wonderfully with the pink of your Cape Mallow.