is this Astrantia

Its clearly a member of the member of the Mallow family from the foliage and the flower that has a central column of stamen. And its probably a Sidalcea with that height and flowering at this time of the year.

But what intrigues me is that Mallows generally have five petals but this clearly has six. My avatar on the left is a Malope - another member of the Mallow family. And you can see it has five petals. The petals themselves are not clear except where they fail to overlap at the centre and allow the green of the bracts behind to show through. In my avator you can see five green rays. And my Sidalcea also has five green rays. But in Gretsky's middle picture there are six green rays.

 

Hmmm, it seems this one has created a bit of a puzzle.

The sun is shining just now and am off to cut the grass. The flowers probably will have opened up a little more so I`ll try and get some more pics afterwards.

Thanks again everyone.

 

As you can see, some flowers have 5 petals and some have six Is this normal?

One final question. Due to the height, I`m going to take it out. I would leave it there if it could be kept in check so my question is, next year, can the flower stems be cut back at around 3 feet and would new ones come through? I don`t want it growing so high where it is.

 

Gretzky - You have solved the mystery. Its clearly a Sidalcea with a few unusual 6 petal flowers. Its lovely all the same - and so tall.

You certainly don't want that height in front of your windows. In theory you can cut back many perennials early in the year and they will grow back shorter and sturdier and flower just as well. But you must do it before the flower buds develop. This is often suggested for Sedum and is called the Chelsea chop (as its done about the time of the Chelsea Flower Show) but it works for many plants.

I would be inclined just to move it so that its against the wall either to the left or right of the window. Wait till autumn, cut back 80% of the foliage and dig it up. If you have a large clump you can divide it at the same time - but leave big chunks - don't divide it into tiny pieces. I did exactly that with my Sidalcea in October last year and it has been lovely this year. See below.

I find my Sidalsea gets floppy and I have to give it a bit of support. In fact I have been meaning to cut it back early in the season to see how it does. I am amazed yours hasn't flopped more being so tall.

 

Thanks Peter. Great advice from you there

There are actually two separate plants there so that may explain the 5 and 6 petals.
I did actually lose a couple of stems that had flopped to ground level and broke. It`s leaning left due to the high wind from that direction yesterday. I`ll be honest. I wasn`t overly impressed with it until the weekend when the buds started to open in earnest. I wondered what possessed me to buy such a thing, but now I see why. It certainly didn`t grow to that height last year but then again, I only just got it last year.
I think I`ll do some re-arranging later and put one each side of the bay.

That`s a super display yours is puting out.

Thanks again for everyones help.