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.
When, in my London maisonette childhood, I painted pictures of my dream country cottage I always put hollyhocks in the garden. Now I live in one – complete with hollyhocks.
I’m very happy that you and Jackie have your dream cottage with hollyhocks. š
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stunning flower! love them especially the double one š
That one is a beauty.
Oh lovely, and who doesnāt like something with āapple blossomā š
It’s a good job apples aren’t protective of the name!
Wow, these are enviable, and one of many flowers we do not grow here. They rust too badly.
Nice to see though, where they will grow.
yes
I now have space for Hollyhocks and hope to find some to plant soon. I love the double one.
That’s something to look forward to.
Yupp. Next year as flowers are hard to find this year.
What a lovely collection of photographs of Hollyhocks.
If I had to pick just one, it would be Alcea āHalo Lavenderā – but I fear they wouldnāt cope with the combined rain and wind in this garden, so sadly they remain forever off my planting list. Iām happy just to look at them elsewhere. š
I once grew some shorter ones from seed, but part of the allure is their height.
Love your photos. And, I love hollyhocks as well, but I am on the verge of not growing them, not because of rust but because of the sawfly larvae. I spray daily with Bt, but still the leaves are skeletonized. Maybe it says more about me than the plant, but I see those ugly leaves more than the beauty of the flowers! I would miss them though…
It’s difficult isn’t it? I know all about leaf skeletons – if you could see my garden peas, you’d know how much I sympathise.
Love these flowers!! A fee years ago, a “garden guerrilla artist” planted seeds of flowers all around Zurich. Now in spring and summer, lots of flowers bloom wildly in the city… Now is the time for the hollyhocks! Zurich is full of these beauties, growing tall and colorful in almost every street š
That’s such a great idea. I’ve never been to Zurich in hollyhock season but you make it sound very attractive!
I love hollyhocks, but stopped growing them because of rust. I’m trying them again this year, this time A. rugosa and A. ficifolia which are supposedly rust resistant. Do you have any experience with them?
Good luck! I haven’t grown hollyhocks for many years and when I did it was the doubles.
These are on my hit list to grow next year!
Good luck!