On Wednesday morning I looked out the office window as the daylilies were starting to open in the West Shed garden. These hollyhocks are the best of the lot, with rust not attacking them yet, knock wood.
South Herb garden
The hollyhocks all volunteered, except the New South ones. They are possibly annuals called Indian Spring, or biennials, or perennials. Hollyhocks come in all 3 types. To find out, I have to wait 3 years and hope they survive.
South garden
I’m pretty sure this is the lone survivor of the decades old hollyhocks in this garden. They were planted back in the 1990’s.
This was the original South garden hollyhocks in July 2002
South garden July 2003
New Herb garden
I prefer the singles, the doubles just don’t look like hollyhocks. I also don’t like the “black” ones, as I find the lighter colors more attractive.
New South garden
I bought these 2 this year. The left one is a regular perennial. The right one is a fig leaf variety, and I hope it will survive as a perennial.
Big garden
This was the only flower from the flowerbeds left in this garden. Hollyhocks are taproot plants and do not transplant well. I didn’t plant a perennial hollyhock here, but there had been an attempt to transplant them from the South garden during construction. They did flower but died in the winter.
I have also planted annual hollyhocks in this garden and they have gone to seed. So I won’t know if this is an annual or perennial until next year.
I love how each of these volunteers is a different color. I use mixes when I start seedlings, so I got lucky this year with all the volunteers and their colors.