PlantFiles: Turk's Cap
Malvaviscus arboreus

We have some plants that are thriving from some cuttings from a plant that my wife and her grandmother planted over 50 years ago in central Georgia.

A tough as nails plant that likes clay, sand, acid, alkaline soil in sun, part sun, part shade and shade.

This plant can take heat and drought with no care after the first few months.

Get the point! This plant rocks. It will freeze back in the winter but it is perennial so you get it again in spring.

The fruits are pretty good tasting when very ripe and red. They taste like Watermelon but are mostly seed. I have heard that the young leaves and flowers are edible too but I have just eaten the berries.

Turks Cap is hardy for me in Z7 in afternoon shade. It dies down in winter, but always comes back. It doesn't form a shrub this far north and has a rangy wild flower form, so you wouldn't put it in a formal border, but it's a great backyard plant. Stays 3' or less.

I'm delighted to have found out that this multitrunk plant is a deciduous perennial in my garden (zone 7b). Although, credits this to the microclimate that I have (being near a lake). I took cuttings just in case -- but to my delight, this plant is sprouting back outdoor. Now I've many a cuttings to share with friends. Lovely plants, carefree, and they do produce seedpods!

These are the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings. You can put them in water or potting soil and within a week or so you will have lots of roots.

The ones I grow in my orchid house in the ground bed get kind of leggy and will fall over and grow roots along the stem. I suspect if I spent more time pruning them, they would be more bushy like. Think I will try that next year.

I have not grown this before and I am wondering if I can put it in a large container and have it do well. My ground has a lot of black clay and rocks. From reading other inputs it seems it will grow most anywhere.

I have not grown this plant which is a native of the tropical regions of Mexico to Peru and Brazil. It has naturalized in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) is a spreading shrub that grows to about 2 to 3 m high and 2 to 3 m wide (average size 8 feet by 8 feet). It often spreads by layering. The stems and leaves are densely covered with stellate hairs. The ovate to suborbicular leaves are shallowly 3-lobed or not lobed and have crenate-serrate margins. The 20 to 35 mm long flower petals are scarlet. The red fleshy fruit are about 1 to 3 cm in diameter. It can be propagated by layering, cuttings, root division and seed. Malvaviscus arboreus is a great plant for a hummingbird garden. It is not suitable for a small garden because it tends to ramble. There are dwarf cultivars of this plant. The young leaves, flowers and fruit are edible.

I don't know why they call it a shrub. I'm not really wise to all of this but mine is more a stalk here and there. Maybe a shrub starting here and there..?
Hardy little guys. I never do anything to mine. They just come back every year.