Cooperative Living June 2017 - 39

I
f you've never grown hollyhocks give
them a try, especially if you have children
or grandchildren who will be entertained
all summer watching them grow.
My son has always been fascinated with
growth - the biggest pumpkin at the state
fair, the longest trellised cucumbers and so
on. If you are a fan of towering flowers,
such as sunflowers, the hollyhock is one of
the most rewarding you will ever cultivate.
About the time of year school lets out,
hollyhocks start their upward climb. They
can easily grow to 8 feet in a summer, so
they are fascinating to watch. My all-time
record breaker was an old-fashioned single
variety, " Indian Spring, " which topped out
at 10 feet, 8 inches. It rivaled Jack's
beanstalk. Planted under a second-story
window, everyone enjoyed guessing if and
when we might be able to reach out and
touch it from the upstairs. A crafty bonus
is the charming ruffled blossoms that no
little girl can resist fashioning into floral
Southern belles.
The hollyhock, Alcea rosea, is a cottage
garden plant, the flower of the common
man. In the South hollyhocks are often
seen near a barn or along a fence where
they can grow expansively to their full
height and spread their huge, coarse leaves
to screen rustic outbuildings. They evoke
nostalgia, a simpler time and the fresh air
of the country. They are heavy feeders, so
around the barnyard there was plentiful
manure to use as compost.
In the modern home garden, they are
stunning as a backdrop to drifts of
perennials or as flowering pillars to frame
an entry. Hollyhocks bloom from the
bottom of the stalk upward. If you have
a towering main stem, this process can
take quite a while, so they provide a long,
summertime show.
If planted against a fence or building,
hollyhocks usually do not need support,
but I have seen them staked and lining
both sides of a sidewalk in England where,
as they grow, they form a long allée. By
the end of August, you have an intriguing
hollyhock tunnel. The sturdy, oldfashioned
single-bloom varieties are the
most reliable. The Chater's Series double
form produces showy, powder-puff
blooms, but they can get so waterlogged
after a rain that they fall.
The hollyhock is a biennial but can be
treated like a perennial, and it may last for
a few years. You may plant seed the first
year and wait until the following year for
the big flower show, or you can purchase
year-old plants that are ready to bloom.
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To make plants last longer, when the
seed capsules on the bottom half of the
stem outnumber the flowers along the
top half, you can begin deadheading before
the seeds form. This saves the plant's
energy to send up more stalks instead of
allowing it to produce seeds. It can be
quite fun, for children especially,
to watch the seeds that have dropped on
the ground beneath the plant spawn
tons of little bright-green saucer-shaped
leaves on new baby plants. Maybe such
abundant seeding is why Victorians
considered the hollyhock a symbol
of fertility.
Hollyhock
dolls can be
made from
the big
colorful
blooms.
I personally enjoy experimenting
with pruning techniques and tending my
gentle giants to see how I can extend their
season. The first year of flowering, you
will only have one or two stalks per plant,
but I have found if you cut down an
established plant's stalks after they have
bloomed about halfway, they will send up
fresh stalks. This has the advantage of
allowing the plant to bloom longer while
keeping its appearance tidier.
The hollyhock
is one of the most
rewarding towering
flowers you will
ever cultivate.
Hollyhocks like rich soil that is welldrained,
so enrich the soil at planting
time. My Jack-and-the-Beanstalk trick
was achieved through slow, deep watering
at the first flush of bloom. In Virginia,
that happens around Memorial Day. I let
the water trickle for a few hours one day
of the holiday weekend and that seems
to give the plants a healthy jumpstart.
Spray healthy plants with a fungicide
as a preventive because hollyhocks are
susceptible to rust; if the disease ever
gets a foothold, the plant will have to
be removed entirely.
When June rolls around, big colorful
blooms start appearing on the stalk that
has lots of knobby green buds at the top.
This means it is time to start making
hollyhock dolls. Cut a large bloom with
about a half-inch stem for the full-length,
sweeping skirt. Cut one of the elongated
green buds just beginning to show a spot
of petal color at the top. Peel off the green
protective sepals from the bud. This part
becomes the head of the doll and will
have the skirt attached below it. The base
of the bud is white-colored and will
become the face of the doll.
Carefully handle the bud, pushing it
down over the green stem sticking up
from the skirt. Some people dot eyes on
the bud with a marker, or draw tiny arcs
to resemble the demure closed eyelids of
the Southern belle. You may want to
pluck another open bloom and channel
Scarlett O'Hara with her oversized bonnet
to top the doll's head.
Little girls of the neighborhood will be
very happy to craft the dolls to flounce
around their pretend ballroom garden
and enjoy a summer day to its fullest. 
June 2017 | Cooperative Living | 37
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Cooperative Living June 2017

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