Mystery plant in my edible garden

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

This mystery plant popped up in my organic edible (fruit and vegetable, and flowers too) garden a few weeks ago. It is now about 2 1/2 feet tall. It reminds me of Hollyhock but can't imagine where it could come from. I grew Hollyhock for one year only in the flower bed quite far from my edible garden on the other side of the house about ten or 15 years ago.

The flowers belong to Calendula of course, and in the background is Squash.

Featured Answer

Jay 6a Chicago

2 years ago

Hollyhock. The seeds can stay viable up to 9 years. That's the longest recorded time, but you may have broken that record, though there's absolutely no way to prove it. They will make a nice contrast to the Calendula. I grow native mallows, but that cute little exotic Hibiscus trionum I keep around, though their flowers are usually already closed by the time I come round and get out to look at them. I wonder how hollyhocks do on the west coast, they succumb to foliage problems here with all the humidity.

Comments (8)

windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Thank you. It is what I thought then, but i couldn't believe myself. But how the seeds got there and why it sprouted now and not earlier is a total mystery.

As for the Hollyhock performance on the West Coast I can't say anything because I live 550 km from there and the climate where I live is entirely different. I have drought (but of course I water my plants once a week), and heat (can't do anything about that). This year temperatures broke all time records with two and a half months of temperatures well above 30 C, and the end of June heat wave with temperatures above 40 C (100 F), up to almost 50 C (120 F) not far from where I live.

Hollyhock was not thriving here in my sandy soil, it is why I tried it only once. So far it looks like it likes the soil in my edible garden in this bed recently improved more with my direct composting method (burying fresh stuff in the soil). Ah well, one more flower in my edible garden!
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Jay 6a Chicago
2 years ago
Maybe the seed was buried by an animal, and then brought back, near the soil surface by you. Things pop up in my garden after being absent for years, like Coreopsis tinctoria and Climbing Fumitory. The hollyhocks will draw more bees into the veg garden. I grow Iliamna remota, an extremely rare Mallow that only grows on 1 little island on a river about 40 miles from where I live. I'm pretty sure there are more Iliamna species in the west. I've had Malva zebrina and Abelmoschus manihot come up from seed for years after purposely growing them, but their seeds are now depleted, or there's just not enough open ground any more for them to volunteer in.

Tropical Hibiscus

Iliamna remota

Callirhoe bushii
windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
2 years ago
The hollyhocks will draw more bees into the veg garden . . .

It is extremely sad but not many bees in this area anymore. Even a few years ago my garden and yard were humming with insects. Now it is all almost completely silent. Silent summer. Hardly a few bumble bees on my Bee Balm and Hyssop, too.
bengz6westmd
2 years ago
windberry, you can buy mason bee "houses" to encourage them. I got one this past spring & many of the "holes" are/were occupied. Use your search engine to find some.
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked bengz6westmd
windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Thank you bengz, but it is not the lack of housing for insects on my 2 1/2 acre prop that is the problem. Half of the prop is forest and kept 100 percent wild, and on the rest I have a lot of trees too, and trillions of blooming plants.

Insects disappear because of climate change and human efforts to control Nature. To quote https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2946087/ : "Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used in the United State (US) each year and approximately 5.6 billion pounds are used worldwide." Those pesticides kill indiscriminately all so call "good" and so called "bad" insects, or destroy their food sources. Climate change makes surviving difficult, if not impossible, for those that remain.

Nevertheless I will give a try to the recommended by you method, may be it will help. Thanks again. Where do you put such a house?
windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
2 years ago
Hello bengz again. I did some looking and have found a good info on the bee houses, want to share it with you: https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-of-green/choose-best-mason-bee-home-make-one/?gclid=CjwKCAjwsNiIBhBdEiwAJK4khsm_6I-FNvYzyH5jmhg3Mp3ufSdQccDtuQpKaw4TI1ubilOctzKUEhoCrUIQAvD_BwE

I think I will try to make the bee house myself.
bengz6westmd
2 years ago
Thanks, windberry, that's an interesting site -- bookmarked.