hollyhock family

Parlor Maple

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Pity the poor parlor maple. It is not a maple tree by any stretch of the imagination and its days of houseplant stardom peaked back when people still had parlors. It’s a sad predicament for a lovely plant. The plant taxonomists will never assign parlor maples, more formally known as Abutilon x hybrida, to the … Read more

Hibiscus Everywhere

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If I were paranoid, I would say that I am being stalked by the mallow family.  Regular people cannot imagine such a thing, but we plant lovers sometimes can.  Consider the following….While walking on a country road in central New York State, I saw a stand of tall, single-flowered hollyhocks blooming by the side of … Read more