I believe that is French Hollyhock. I think it is an annual rather than a perennial. It might be a perennial (or biennial) in warm zones, not sure. There seems to be a good deal of name confusion for this plant as well as it being an annual or perennial, I don't think it is a climber though, more of a trailer it seems.

They are described as being 2-4' in length with one source claiming up to 6'. Haven't found any info on seed collecting, but as with any flowering plant just look in the area where the flower is for seeds or a seed pod to form and mature (they usually brown). Several sources suggest it self seeds readily, but I couldn't find any information on what cold hardiness the seeds have.

The marrows/hollyhock seem to be more of a European/French plant than a US one. Dunno why. Also the wanna-be witches seem to like the plant for it's 'medicinal' properties, whatever those might be.

Wow, too bad I'm not a witch!!! Thank you for the info. Guess I'll treat it as as annual and collect seeds. It's really a very pretty plant, but it's mixed in there with the morning glories, and I almost overlooked it. It's a very unusual color or purple and the leaves are a very dard green.

the spikes were dipped in tallow, and burned like torches, and the roots (like all mallows) produce a milky substance that's used in primitive wound care, and as an expectorant, I think

from what the horiplex here says, it comes in several shades of pink and purple, and germinates readily from seed- several entries mentioned it as a 'self sower' - a plant that will reseed itself with no help from humans :)

so it might be nice as a garden project to plant those seeds in the spring in flats, and then look for similar seedlings in that bed (they should be up before the morning glories, or about the same time)

Thanks for the info. Haven't seen any seeds yet, but I'm going to start looking. The morning glories are already seeding, so I'm collecting them for next year. I'd love to have the Mallow away from the morning glories, because I really think it would look nice by itself. With the morning glories in there now, you can't really appreciate the Mallow. Chinacat, your idea sounds really good and I think I'll try that, too.

I have it and it does reseed prolifically. You don't have to save seed. As long as there were blooms left on the plant, it will self-sow. Next spring you will find lots of little plants.

I think malva sylvestris is classified as a "tender" perennial. They certainly didn't make it through my 6b winter, although I had purchased plants from a zone 6 nursery which sold them as being perennials. However, there were some (8 or 9) seedlings which have managed to bloom, just much later in the season than the original plant bloomed.