Welcome to our forum! Hope you learn lots and share everything you know with us. We can all learn something from everyone! I let the shoots that start at the bottom grow up. They will bloom nicely for you, but not be anywhere near as big as the 'momma'. When the momma stem looks nasty, I whack mine down to about 5" above the ground. They will come back from that rootstock every year and will also re-seed themselves readily. After a couple years, my original plants seem to tucker out and I yank them out. Of course, since they have been reseeding, there are usually lots of volunteers to take their place and bloom away! Susie PS. click on the FAQ link at the top of our forum page, and you will see lots of helpful faq's compiled from information posted on this forum. Tried and true for here in our Arizona Paradise..

This is my first time growing these plants I've always longed for. I wintersowed seeds from my neighbour's deep burgundy plant and one bloomed pure white, the other a very pale yellow. Do they not come true to the parent? No, they don't come true from seed. Hollyhocks cross with any other hollyhock nearby, they don't have to be in your yard but only within a bee's flight path. If a bee visits a hollyhock in your neighborhood and that pollen is still on its legs when it visits another hollyhock then crossing can and usually does occur. The white flowered plant was(or is) amazing - took off like it was on steroids - about 8 feet tall and at least 4 feet wide, with about 8 stalks which obliterated the two plants on either side. The leftmost was one little stalk with the pale yellow blooms, the other never reached maturity and is still a little leafy shrub. I am planning to cut back the stalks on the hulking monster because I understand they self-seed, but it has a nice little rosette of new leaves forming at its roots. Will this die off over winter, or do I have to dig it up? I'm in zone seven and my perennial hollyhocks maintain a semi-evergreen basal rosette of leaves. In spring I have to clean them up and pull out the gnarliest looking ones to make it a look a lot better. Some hollyhocks don't behave as perennials, they may by an annual or short-lived perennial. If you have soil that doesn't drain well in winter your hollyhock might not survive, they don't do well with "wet feet" in winter, they get crown rot and die. Also, will the little one which did not reach maturity survive the winter and bloom next summer? If it didn't bloom this year it's likely a perennial or biennial and will bloom next year. I used to live in zone 4b and our perennial hollyhocks did survive. They died entirely back to the ground and sprouted again in mid-spring, they were growing in a rock garden and had excellent drainage. My neighbor lived along a stream bank that had reseeding hollyhocks on the bank--those which were higher up on the bank suruvived winter because they had good drainage, but the hollyhocks which were closer down to the stream didn't survive because the soil was too moist during winter and early spring. The survival of perennial hollyhocks is influenced by drainage in winter--with good drainage they should survive. P.S. At first I was deeply disappointed with the white blooms, but I came to like them, they were pure-white and beautifully formed. But I don't think I really want them again. I wanted a contrast for my trumpet lilies Regale alba. N. Gardens are full of surprises, maybe you could grow another plant among the lilies and hollyhocks to accent them both. Lilies often have a dark purple hue on the backs of their petals, maybe some plum-toned flowers or vines will help pull it all together for you. Trudi

Claire - I would just put them in some protected area. In the thread about freezing in pots I mentioned some plants making it in my shade house still in six packs - Hollyhocks were some of those perennials. I started them in July one year and just left them in the six packs or 4" pots - the shade house (24'x8') is on the north side of my garage with lattice surrounding it and about a 4' opening (no door). The roof is shade cloth. Things do fine for me there over the winter

Nana, no, I haven't been to the Balloon Festival. I don't care for crowds. My home is about twenty-five miles south of central Albuquerque. We sometimes have a smaller balloon festival out here, in March. One day during the March festival a bunch of balloons travelled over my property. I was really surprised at how much noise they make, when the gas is fired up. Scared the heck out of most of my dogs! All but one dog fled into the house to hide. The bold one, a Samoyed, sat on the deck and barked at the balloons which passed over the house. A couple of the balloonists leaned over their baskets and called out to the dog. The look of surprise on the dog's face was priceless. One balloonist had to set down across the street, pack everything up and be transported off by a small pick-up truck. It seemed a number of people in trucks were following the balloonists. Throughout the day I saw other hot air balloons being transported back on the roads. I haven't seen many balloons this year. Usually this is a popular area for recreational ballooning. Probably the price of the fuel is too high. Lorna