Hollyhock

Hollyhocks are great plants for summer colour and height. They are reliable performers, and their seedlings always appear in interesting places.

a slightly dark red hollyhock

I have a single medium red variety, whose colour is strong and cheerful. I usually just accept where its seedlings grow - one plant is right in the middle of the front path. I have placed a small terracotta pig underneath it, to try and make the planting look deliberate...

Double Hollyhocks

Seed catalogues offer a lot of beautifully coloured doubles, and I'm often tempted to try some of the dark black-red ones.

Mid Red Hollyhock

Later on in summer the leaves get very scruffy, and often get rusted. I cut them down when I'm sick of the untidiness, and I'll often grab some seedheads and do a little unsubtle scattering. Another autumn flowering often results, especially if there is mild weather.

I have had other colours of Hollyhock, one a soft baby pink, and another a rather insipid lemon. Strangely these never reproduced any same like-coloured seedlings. I'll stick with my big reds.