For most of us, I suspect, hollyhocks are a dream, but what a dream they are!
Ruffled blooms with a hint of crinoline have the old fashioned charm and romance we associate with cottage gardens. The leafy green buds, typical of the mallow family, are decorative too.
Unlike more regimented spiky plants that open their blooms in sequence from bottom to top, hollyhocks flowers are delightfully laissez faire.
Open flowers are scattered among the buds seemingly at random without waiting for sister flowers, creating airy towers that lean and sway on the wind.
In any discussion of hollyhocks there’s an elephant in the room: rust. Like many plant diseases it’s a question of where we place our attention. In the picture above, do we oooh! over the flowers or yeuk! about the rust?
It is possible to grow healthy hollyhocks, even in large clusters, and modern varieties are selected to be less prone to disease.
The dusky purple blooms of Alcea ‘Halo Lavender’ caught my eye at a flower show – lavender is stretching a point – here combined with ornamental carrot. Daucus carota ‘Dara’ is white in the bud, opens to pink and darkens almost to burgundy which will be lovely with the hollyhock.
I seem to have a weakness for plants named ‘Apple Blossom’: Pelargonium ‘Apple Blossom Rosebud’ is a favourite and I’m an admirer of Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’ too. Alcea ‘Apple Blossom’ is no exception, with its tissue paper-like balls of powder pink fluff.
If you’re growing hollyhocks, I hope they’re doing you proud. And if, like me, you are just dreaming, I hope these will be fodder for the imagination.
Shared for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Susan Rushton 
Beautiful ā¤ļø
I’m glad you liked them š
I grew up with hollyhocks galore in both my grandmother and mother’s gardens. They weren’t as fancy as some of these varieties, but they made wonderful dolls: one bloom turned downward for the skirt, and a bud on top for the face.
Wonderful memories to have. I never had the chance to play with hollyhocks, but I have made my fair share of daisy chains.
All gorgeous but I particularly liked the double pink one.
I have a weakness for doubles. š
Stunning!!!
It’s always a treat for me to see hollyhocks.
Love hollyhocks. I remember seeing such a lot of beauties on a trip to Suffolk.
They do stay in the mind. I saw a decrepit looking house once with a garden full of hollyhocks. It was on a busy road and I didn’t stop to get a closer look and I really regret it!
I have the same memories as Shoreacres, above, and seeing these certainly brought those back! I love hollyhocks, and I thank you for posting about them; I do need to plant some here. Where I’d put them is a bit of a head-scratcher, but I think I could make it happen, especially if I could grow something like the Halo Lavender with the Dora. Gorgeous! But then there’s Apple Blossom….hollyhocks wear so many colors well.
I’m happy to have brought back some fond memories! Hollyhocks are some of the most atmospheric flowers.
I do love the cottage look of hollyhocks, but as you mentioned rust is a real problem and I’ve given up growing them. Unfortunately, my H. ‘Annabelle’ keeps perpetuating it. Having surrounding wild white pine and currants out there doesn’t help either.
I haven’t grown them for many years either. I have seen them looking surprisingly good growing wild in the streets in more southernly parts of England.
I hadn’ tocks seen hollyhocks in a long, some others I make hollyhock dolls. One of the things did before TV.
The hollyhock dolls must have been lovely to make as a child. TV has a lot to answer for! š
They are easy to make, a bud for the head and open flower the body/dress. We played with jacks and jumped rope sometimes marbles that was more of a boy’s action.
No hollyhocks at my home in the woods. But what a dream they are, despite the rust.
And dreams so rarely have rust…
They pop up where they llike in my garden, I never sowed any. I do like the pink powder puff.
Little gifts of nature – or rather, not-so-little gifts!