Healthy Hollyhock Spray

Since we have had such a nice winter and it has been so like spring lately, I am getting a head start on things in the garden. I have several hollyhocks that are getting pretty tall (18 inches or so) already. I thought I would share this recipe that I saved from a Sharon Lovejoy article in Country Living Gardener.

Mix 1 gallon of water, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 T canola oil, 1/2 tsp. Ivory liquid dish soap (I have used different kinds) 1/2 cup white vinegar
shake thouroughly before each use and spray your hollyhocks once weekly from the time the first buds appear until the flowers stop blooming. Apply in the early AM drenching both sides of the leaves with liquid.

I have to admit that I don't do it as often as I should, but since I started using it I haven't had any rust on my hollyhocks.

Cactus patch--thanks for the recipe.

And is your pretty hollyhock a specific variety? So pretty, and I love the singles...

Actually, 8 years ago when I moved to this house I broadcast a couple of packages of double pinks and reds. As they have reseeded--this is what I am getting now. I love that color. I like serendipity in the garden! I am planting some Burpee's Carnival Mix today. I misplaced the packet and they didn't get planted last fall. But with our long season I have done this before and they still bloom for me.

Thanks. You are lucky to have such pretty ones--I often think the singles are prettier than some of the modern doubles. And the butterflies and hummingbirds like the singles better, too, so they say.

Does the rust hit some parts of the country more than others? I'm trying to figure out if I'll need your recipe, too....

Hollyhock 'rust' likes to thrive wet/damp conditions and is common all over the country.

Cutting out infected leaves and removing infected plants and throwing the refuse away is important to keep it from spreading, too. So is cleaning out the hollyhock garden in autumn.

I agree that it is the humidity. We don't have much, but I seem to have gotten it more when I had misters in the area. Now I don't even have drippers there and it hasn't shown up. But as a precaution I spray them occasionally. Usually in the Spring and when we get rain-around August. For me it is no problem cutting out the leaves, as they look bad to me and I snatch them right off there!

Well, if I can get some as pretty as yours, I'll be more than happy! Thanks!

Hi kids -- Great Pic, CP!

In the fall, do I cut the foliage off hollyhocks? They stay evergreen here, more or less beat up looking by the end of winter, but still evergreen. I was thinking about cutting them flush to the ground? No? Yes?

Suzy

I have do cut mine to the ground and they do just fine. They are already about 2 ft. square bushes and I cut them last year. But if they look fine I don't think you need to cut them now? I mean I mainly cut back just to keep the front courtyard looking neat.

I don't know from experience, especially about the perennial kind (malva).

I just had the biennial kind (alcea) --I cut them back a bit after the first summer and then pulled them out after year two and will start again from seed.

Here's a link with a bit of an interesting disussion about hollyhocks: http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-18-1131,00.html

CP,

It's an interesting difference -- to us (in the snowy and bitter cold north) ANYTHING GREEN in the winter is to be cherished. It actually doesn't matter if it is half-dead and beat up, as long as it's green. In other words what you think looks really cruddy and in need of being cut off is something we are proud to have. :))

Suzy

LOL

I'm sowing some more holllyhock seeds today. Thanks for the reminders!

Our snow is melting today and it will be in the 50s tomorrow. Maybe some bulbs will start to grow...

Illoquin, I do understand I once lived in the frozen north! I am a New Mexican and it was very hard on me. Spring is pretty much here now. Lots more blooms and the roses are all putting on leaves. I think it was in the high 60's yesterday. I threw out some more hollyhock seeds too.

Guess what? The funniest thing -- I went out to clean up some beds here -- icy cold leaves sort of frozen to snow, but they *will* rake up LOL! The Hollyhocks didn't have any green at all! I don;t know where the leaves went because in early January I swear they were there! No wonder they tell you to get rid of the leaves...alll those spores, if I had any, are already in the soil now.

So, they must be mulched...that keeps ther rain from spalshing the spores and the resultant splashes getting on the leaves. (That's hard to explain by typing :))