CongressOfHollyhocks

A Congress of Hollyhocks
HollyhocksNorthCopse

Joan Shaw

The genus Alcea, otherwise known to us down home gardeners as the friendly and honest Hollyhocks, were stalwarts of the Victorian era garden; that is, in their single-flowered form. In fact, the singles of the genus appear to be having a resurgence in the last couple of decades. I can now find single-flowered hollyhocks in catalogs and in local nurseries everywhere, when back thirty years ago I couldn't find anything but Chater's Doubles and powder-puffs.
HollyhockPeach

Hollyhocks of both single and double varieties tend to topple as the numerous blossoms along the tall stems tend to concentrate at the top after the bottom blossoms die off and the plant starts producing seed. Hollyhocks in general have trouble staying upright in unprotected areas during windstorms or heavy rain. But the doubles and powder-puff types are especially prone to falling over, even when the tops are still in bud.

Decades ago, when what are now sheltering trees at Dragongoose Farm were mere saplings and two-foot-high evergreens, the winds whipping across the gardens here spelled death and destruction to many tall-growth plant. But these winds were especially cruel to the top-heavy doubles. Nor did these fat-blossomed plants add anything to the nostalgic and sweetly flowering cottage gardens I loved in which hollyhocks played such a prominent part. Moreover, the doubles and pompoms didn't seem to have any scent.

Flowers from my Childhood

Remembering so clearly the seeds produced by the hollyhocks in the gardens of my mother and great grandmother, I decided to search for some of my own -- in a nearby farm garden, if worse came to worse. This was in the early days of my gardening here in Utah and Melanie was still in junior high school. Melanie was interested at a very early age in plants and had already discovered Thomson and Morgan, seedsmen, and their fascinating catalog. At that time, Thomson and Morgan had just about every seed available in the western hemisphere.
Hollyhock Singles pink and Red

A planting of a packet of mixed hollyhock seed from Thomson and Morgan, a few years of coddling in what was then an unhospitable climate -- hot, dry, bare, and windy -- produced a nice selection under an old Siberian elm close to the house. Then, as the years went by, they began spreading north and south, wherever there was a cultivated bed that would accept them (and some that would rather not accept them). They even turned up out in the field and on the hillside bordering the road below us.

Now the place is overrun with them. Pulling up and cutting back hollyhocks we've accepted now as part of the ongoing gardening regime each spring and early summer.

Hollyhocks in the Garden

Hollyhocks have been depicted in paintings and in photographs mostly as an architectural plant, as shown above, at right. And their tall spires do look beautiful, especially as a charming addition to a cottage garden, either in the back or as part of the center arrangement. But here, simply randomly placed, coming up wherever they feel like it, they also look wonderful. Perhaps I should say, naturally or organically placed, because we seldom place them anywhere ourselves!

The best, most effective view of hollyhocks occurs when they have just a few blossoms opened mid spire when, with the unopened buds above and their big leaves around the bottom at their healthiest, they exhibit their classic, oft-depicted soaring shape. This is the very best time to photograph them. When most of the lower blossoms drop off and the stems begin to seed and the top-most blossoms begin to bend the plants over -- especially if they've taken a hit from the sprinklers or, less possisble, from our less and less appearing rain, it's time around here to cut them off at about the ankles.

Cut off soon enough, the bottoms throw up a smaller set of spires and we have a second bloom of hollyhocks. But by the end of August, early September, as of now, Shirlaine, our gardener, pulls them up or cuts them down to the ground and carts the results back to the compost heap. Where the seeds, by the way, lie in wait for the compost to be spread, because many, many of their seeds survive the heat and grow up joyfully in full splendor wherever they find themselves.

Architectural interest aside, the flowers themselves are often something to admire, too, as witness the spectacular and luminous pink and deep carmine flowers shown above left.

Culture
Hollyhock Single Big Pink

Hollyhocks do best in full sun, although here in Cache Valley, a semi-arid area with some terrifically hot summer temperatures, they do well in part shade as well. They certainly need supplemental water in Utah, especially during the extended drought we've been experiencing. They're happy, too, in Utah's alkaline soil, but need it to be well drained -- though, again, our drought-plagued soil lately could hardly be more drained than it already is.

They look nice in clumps, if you're planting seedlings. Self-seeded, they come up in clumps readily. Although I've tried doubles and powder-puffs in my early tries at importing hollyhocks, I eventually grubbed them out in favor of perennial singles. Sweet smelling, hummingbirds love them. I have a clump of them outside my study window here in deep pink that are visited by hummingbirds every late afternoon.

While standing by the iris walk the other day, photographing an especially lacy hollyhock blossom (shown at right) the whirr of hummingbird wings was all around me. The iris walk is a double bed bissected by a grass walk and is thick with hollyhocks by late July and August. Next year this time (when and if I have the time), I'm going to sit out there with a camera trained on some likely hollyhock blossoms and see if I can't catch one of these hummingbirds at work.

My daughter, Melanie, tells me that she's observed hummingbirds at work and that one hummingbird will guard a hollyhock plant and chase others away. She says the altercations among hummingbirds during these confrontations is pretty intense, and interesting to watch -- and listen to.

The seeds on hollyhocks, by the way, come in little packages resembling a bag tied at the neck and are filled with a circle of tough s HollyhockSinglesDeepRed

eeds about the size of a flat pea. The seeds are quite viable, producing a wealth of rather big-leaved seedlings. This is when they should be transplanted to the back of the border, to make a long row in a protected spot, to place in the middle of a largish bed, or to plant against the house or a porch. They're a wonderful sight next to the vegetable garden, because their broad leaves look healthy from the get-go and the spires are dark green, a good introduction to the vegetable garden itself. When hollyhocks leaves number more than four or five, the root becomes rather long and transplanting becomes fairly chancy.

If you'd like to try the pom-poms, White Flower Farms has a nice selection; for instance, Alcea 'Peaches 'n Dreams', a nice color blending peach, rose, and cream in a powder-puff shape. These are available in seed if you search a bit for them. White Flower Farms offer the plants as seedlings ready to plant. They also offer a pink variety called A. 'Appleblossom'.

Unusual Colors

The single hollyhocks here often come up with unusual, often striking blossom colors, such as the luminous deep carmine and pink mentioned earlier. I've also found a couple of very dark varieties, such as the deep maroon, almost brown blossom, shown above left.

Another color -- most unusual -- is the A. 'Nigra', a maroon so dark as to be almost black, shown below right. Alcea 'Nigra'

While unusual and often striking when viewed close up, these darker flowers, both the dark maroon and black, tend to disappear into the green foliage on the plant and background shrub planting, especially if the hollyhocks happen to be growing in part shade

Damage

The big flat leaves of hollyhocks are not immune to insect damage, though considering their prolific dispersal around this place, the damage is slight, and insects have to live, too. Hail is another thing. Early spring hail is especially discouraging in the case of hollyhocks, since the bottom leaves bear the brunt of it and they're there for good -- they won't be replaced. One year, we had a lovely slow of hollyhocks except for the absence of their leaves at the bottom. They were, of course, shredded by hail and finally turned yellow and fell down around the stems in shreds. The plants looked very much like of prepubescent girls with their skirts cut off at the knees, showing Hollyhocks Askew

very thin legs indeed.

That leaves us with wind, rain, and sprinkler damage, mentioned above. For many days I had been admiring a big clump of deep pink hollyhocks that I could see out my bedroom window. I kept meaning to photograph the clump for this piece, preferably early in the morning, just as the sun was coming up over the mountain. How luminous the blossoms were then, with that early light behind them!

Alas, I waited too long, for the dry, rock hard soil in the garden at that time needed a general watering Right Now, and the heavy arcs of water, coupled with a rather strong wind afterwards, kocked the water-logged clump about as askew as a clump of hollyhocks can become. Witness the result at left.

Well, I suppose a wild clump of hollyhocks, growing in all directions, has a kind of beauty all to itself. It certainly looks natural enough, especially at this time of year.

All the Best,

Joan