hollyhocks

Is there anything I can do to keep my hollyhocks from falling over other than staking them?

Use less nitrogen and use more potassium. Don't fertileize and use Ironite, wood ashes, or other Potassium supplement. Mine are in good soil with lots of compost. Just see.

How come you don't have rust on your hollyhock leaves???
They do look good.
Mine can bloom but leaves are a mess so the stalks are a naked empty stick with blooms.
Carol

You live where no hollyhocks love to live. LOL Our climate is dry when they start to bloom and the leaf just keeps on producing flower. I used to live in Bellevue and chose to exclude these from my garden there. You have so many other plants to choose from I am limited.

Well, I have some fig leaf hollyhocks that are to not rust but.......... yeah, right, they still do I have found out.
Well, I still have hollyhocks in my dahlia beds tho. The leaves of the dahlias cover up the bad, naked stalks, LOL
Yes, I can imagine there in MT you are limited to what you can grow since it gets so cold in the wintertime.

My only regret is I miss my japanese maples, false cedars and many woodland plants. Pretty much everything else will grow and survive but not flourish.

Beautiful hollyhocks Soferdig. I have the rust problem too: flowers show up atop tall, naked stalks by the time they bloom. I have given up on them due to the rust.

I have some pink ones that have leaves on the bottom that are over 10" in diameter. Few large leaf plants grow here so I use the 1st year hollyhock for texture in the garden and it never is too hard to see the flowers the following year. Then I move them cause they seed everywhere here.