Plant is sun or part shade in a moist and fertile soil so give regular to occasional irrigation. It is frost hardy to 28 to 30 degrees F with foliage taking on a bronze tone with first frost.

Dombeya wallichii is native to easten coastal Madagascar where it was found along creeksides. It was originally described in 1821 by the English botanist John Lindley as Astrapaea wallichii but later described under its current name by the the English botanist George Bentham and then validated and published in 1885 by the French botanist Henri Ernest Baillon. The name for the genus honors Joseph Dombey, an 18th-century French botanist and the specific epithet honors the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich, who was instrumental in the early development of the Calcutta Botanical Garden. Another common name for it is Hydrangea Tree.

There is a great deal of confusion between Dombeya wallichii and a hybrid of it crossed with Dombeya burgessiae that is called Dombeya x cayeuxii. The two are very similar but differ in that D. x cayeuxii has 3 lobed leaves, white at the base of its petals and smaller bracts subtending the umbels of flowers. In her book Color for the Landscape, Mildred Mathias notes that these two plants are often confused with D. x cayeuxii often "erroneously identified as D. wallichii". 

The information about Dombeya wallichii displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.