For some reason the magenta one does not show up unless you click on that little thing beneath the words.

Thanks for that tip, Jackie, on the photo. That is amazing they just showed up. They are very pretty.

The flowers are very pretty, and I especially like the pink one, but the leaves - not so much. But who would ever say no to something that sprang up like magic? Your garden with its wonderful past is a unique treasure, and you are its completely worthy custodian.

Ingrid - here is the one we had last year - that was the first year in ages that we had "something that sprang up like magic", as you said. It was coral colored - every year now I am amazed, and can't wait to see what they are going to do next. I will definitely save the seed of that dark magenta one to re-plant. (I suspect that won't work - they seem to only want to plant themselves.

Jackie

how or why is it off topic in the annuals forum??? .. oh.. wait.. you added roses??? ... nvm....

Ken - My go-to forum is Antique Roses, even for non rose info because I get awesomely faster and usually more "expert" answers and comments there, no matter what the question or subject. I do try to also add the more "proper" forum, but usually get few or no responses. Thank you so much for looking at my post, even if just because you were curious to try and figure out how some ignorant person does not think these types of old hollyhocks (that make short green mounds of leaves for a year, and then explode into flower covered giants in the second year, and then only hundreds of seedlings the third year) are annuals.

Jackie

ignorant.. i think not...

i would have added the perennial forum.. we try to keep it rather active.. and i meant to ask you to include that forum in some of your posts..

in fact there was a post on HHs the other day.. someone complaining about them flopping over.. and i bet you could tell us how to grow them so they dont flop..

anyway.. have a great day ..

ken

ps: do i have some vague recollection HH are actually biennial??? .. not sure there is a forum for that.. and if there were.. it would probably be full of weird 2 year cycle peeps.. lol ..

Mine are biennial - I was not paying much attention, but now I am, and they do all make green mounds of leaves (maybe 2 ft tall) for a year before they explode into monster things the following year. I have been told that there are modern ones which are not biennial, but I believe the old ones all are.

Of course, the year after the huge ones, there will be dozens if not hundreds of seedlings. We just had our gardeners weed them out in one area - that was the second time they did that.

I did plant HH on purpose in 2 areas about 25 years ago. They came up for a few years, and then petered out. Those are the areas where I noticed the first ones coming up recently. Some had round leaves, and some had what they called "grape leaf shaped" leaves. The ones growing now have one or the other, or a sort of combination of both. My giant yellow one is in an area where there never were any, but it is right across the driveway from where some were, so I assume that some seeds blew over there. I love plants which just show up on their own.

Re flopping over, as I recall the ones I bought and planted on purpose 25 years ago did need to be staked, but these biennial ones I have not DO NOT. My DH occasionally throws a rope around one of them to keep it from blocking the driveway, but they are very sturdy. He told me he tried to cut one of the big stems (no telling what DHs will get up to when you are not looking...), and it was "as hard as bamboo, except not hollow in the middle".

I will check out the perennial forum - I added the annual one because I did not know what to call a biennial plant.

Jackie

Saving seeds may not guarantee you get the same colours again. Hollyhocks are promiscuous and the offspring are very variable. I wanted to reproduce a pale lemon and ended up with a burgundy. Now I just let them do their own thing.

Me too, floral_uk - so far the ones which suddenly appeared last year and this year have been 4 different colors. I love all of them. I don't need to save seed, hee, hee. It is a matter of not weeding out one or two of the seedlings they all produce.

Jackie

For example ...

I particularly liked this one, but who knows if I’ll ever get it again.

floral_uk - WOW! Thank you so much for posting those pics of your hollyhock garden - all together they are amazing! So clever how they come up with all sorts of colors randomly. I don't have the space to do that - my biggest one is taking up about 8 ft by 8 ft, and that's just on the ground the rest of it is bigger. My smallest (the dark maroon one) has not been getting watered, because I just noticed it recently, but I am watering it now and hoping it will get bigger.

Jackie

floral_uk, your "forest" of hollyhocks in varying colors is way cool. One doesn't usually see them en masse but they are quite dramatic like that.