One of the joys each year of bicycling along the Delaware River Canal, is the big, flouncy blooms of the Swamp Rose Mallow.  The marshmallow was originally made from the saps of the mallow flower. So it’s no wonder the confection shares the name of the flower.

A Swamp Rose Mallow By Any Other Name

The flowering plant is also known as Hardy Hibiscus or just Rose Mallow. This lovely flower grows on the edge of the Delaware River canal each year.

There are three distinct colors of this flower that bloom along our bicycle ride. So Thaddeus decided we should try and harvest some of the seeds this year and try planting them this coming Spring.  Fortunately they grow in groups. So we found a rather large grouping of the plants that was accessible to be able to mark and harvest seeds.

Since the plants are rather indistinct looking (to non-botanists, such as us), we went out while they were in full bloom and put colored ribbons on some of the different colored plants.  We just recently went out to harvest some of the seed pod.

We let them fully dry, and Thaddeus has extracted the seeds. They’re safely stored in our refrigerator until early Spring 2020.  We’ve read a little bit on-line about how to germinate the plants. But honestly, I don’t hold out a lot of hope we’ll be able to grow fully flowering Swamp Rose Mallows.  But who knows…Thaddeus can be very persistent when it comes to gardening.

Hopefully, I’ll have a follow-up to this blog entry in the Spring.

Current Knitting

Hats, hats, and another hat.  Like Thaddeus, I can be very persistent when it comes to knitting.

I’ve added three more West Coast Watchcaps to my inventory, and I’m quite pleased with how they came out.