Perennials: Hollyhocks

This is the pic I meant to attach.

xxxx, Carrie

OOOh aah, what kind are the peach ones?

????????? We planted it before we knew it mattered what they were called!

xxxxx, Carrie

HA HA!! Me to!! They look great! Mine are all unknows too! :) Some of them have the tag under the dirt and their it shall remain till it's time to divide.

Susan

I have never seen hollyhocks in the nursury sold as plants, just seeds here. I know a lady with 2 1/2 acres and her property just has them everywhere , she just let them go on their own and they did so.

Yeah, figures they would do that in CA! Although, 11, plenty of people sell them as plants. Burpee (boooo!), Springhill, etc. Probably Bluestone. .Here in New England we're trying to coax along a border of four or five plants.

Right on, Susan, I'm with you all the way!

xxxx, Carrie

yeah well before you get too envious, note that i am in the high(hot) desert where few plants thrive easily except weeds, which freely blow seeds in your yards, gophers and rabbits run amuck and we must have sprinklers water everything and at strategic times. The grass is always greener and yours is way greener than mine from this vantage point. lol

At this time of year it's supposed to be brown or covered with snow. I'm not that envious.

ya, don`t be. No snow but ugly and dead. Just pretty mountains with snow and foothills but you can see for 100 miles in most all directions because i live outside of town, in a valley.

Hollyhocks are sooooo easy to grow from seed. I am growing 'Indian Spring' and 'Carnival' that I put in the ground in October. When I lived in Houston, (same zone as south Texas) these two cultivars seem to do the best. I would love to grow other doubles, etc. but they do better in colder zones..I would think that high desert would be great for some of the other cultivars..have fun growing from seed. I always start mine indoors or front porch and gradually acclimate them to less humidity; then on to the garden.

I grew doubles from seed in my other house, we do have cold winters, especially this year , record lows since the 30s. It was 3 degrees for 2 days and just above that for 4. We were looking into pellet stoves or wood, anyone have opinions on them? I went on the pire place forum and people were not of strong opinion on those two choices.

Haven't been on this thread for some time. Crockny, if you are watching I am going to plant my seeds next month instead of waiting until April like I did last year. My hollyhocks came up but not until June and it was late before they had grown to the height they were the year before. We will still have freezing weather but I will cover them with some compost and hope for the best. I am trying to learn the digital camera and how to send pictures so if I can do it I will send pictures this year. Anyone else planting their hollyhock seeds this early?

I don't have time (for anything, really, but) to go back and reread this thread. I am planning to WinterSow some hollyhocks. Soon. (Winter JUST arrived in Massachusetts.)

xxx, Carrie

Your posts are so very interesting..shows what type of gardener I am....I've tried for many years to grow hollyhocks to no avail...my girlfriend has them along her house and they are to die for...don't know what I'm doing wrong but once the snow leave I'll try some of your suggestions...

Well I planted my black hollyhock seeds last week and also have some coming now from last year so hope to have some nice ones this year. Our weather is warm during the day but still in the 40's at night. I just threw the seeds out and covered them with some composted soil and will let you know how they do. It is very interesting how many people from so many different places love and plant Hollyhocks. They are beautiful aren't they?

I'm jealous -- I wish I could plant something now but as you can see my garden is somewhat under the weather ...

Under the weather! ROTFLMAOAPIMP!!!!

xxx, Carrie