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Hello, hello dear friends! I hope you’ve had an awesome 4th of July weekend! What’s blooming in your garden right now? After the colorful riot of lupines and peonies, there’s a bit of a respite in mine. The lupines are seeding, not a pretty sight, but a necessary one, and my daisies and echinacea are about to unfurl. The Japanese beetles feasting on my roses are nothing new, but there’s something special in my flower beds that’s stealing the show that I want to talk to you about. Hollyhocks.
I’ve known and loved hollyhocks since I was a child, and have been trying to add them to my garden for as long as I’ve had one. Although a staple of cottage gardens, these days hollyhocks are hard to come by in plant form at garden centers so, if you’d like to add some to your flower beds, you’ll need to start them from seed like I did, and wait several growing seasons until the plants mature and are ready to flower. But I promise you, they are worth the wait. I started my hollyhock seeds two summers ago and this year my patience has been rewarded with the prettiest flowering stalks I have ever seen.
Here’s what you need to know: As plants, hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) are known for their spectacular vertical stalks and large, saucer-shaped blooms in a dazzling array of colors, including different shades of pink, red, purple, buttery yellow and white.
A classic cottage garden flower, hollyhocks grow anywhere between 3 to 9 feet tall, and they are best planted at the back of a flower border or against a fence or a wall. In terms of life cycle, hollyhocks are biennials, completing their life cycle in two years. The seedling emerges, grows and strengthens one summer, and flowers, goes to seed and dies the next. While their short life-span can be discouraging, hollyhocks, like lupines, are very good at self-seeding so you’ll have flowering plants long after you’ve planted your first hollyhock.
They come in numerous colors and bloom shapes, with single or double, rose-like flowers. Here are some of my favorite varieties:
