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Hollyhock Advice

Alfie_Alfie_ Posts: 456
in Plants
Hi,

Very keen to get some hollyhocks as trying to create some cottage garden borders. I have these Alecea Rosa seeds:



Reading around on the GW website it says you can cheat the biannual nature by sowing in the summer. I wanted advice on how well they take if I direct sowed them now vs sowing them indoors? I imagine they would do better if I started them now indoors then in the spring plant them out by which time hopefully they will be established enough to possibly flower next summer? 

I also have a few I purchased from a nursery in a 1L pot that have started to establish:



Are these established enough to plant into the border now so they will flower next year or will they need over wintering inside. Also, any advice on the rust they suffer from. On this plant I remove the leaves and burn them but they come back fresh then rust and the whole thing just repeats itself. 

Thanks 
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Posts

  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @Alfie_ The one problem with growing Hollyhocks is rust. If you do get it, it is best to have a rest from growing them. Your plants in the photo should flower next year the one's grown from seed the year after. I think trying to cheat  the biennial nature can be done. However it might be more to do with the size and growth of the plant and therefore it's ability to flower? 
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    They don't need to be indoors. You can start them off now and they will over winter fine outside.
  • Alfie_Alfie_ Posts: 456
    GardenerSuze said:
    @Alfie_ The one problem with
    growing Hollyhocks is rust. If you do get it, it is best to have a rest from growing them. Your plants in the photo should flower next year the one's grown from seed the year after. I think trying to cheat  the biennial nature can be done. However it might be more to do with the size and growth of the plant and therefore it's ability to flower? 
    Thanks. If I was going to try and cheat it by starting now is it best to sow indoors or direct sow into that border? 
  • McRazzMcRazz Posts: 440
    edited September 2022
    I grow these every year as well as allow them to naturalise across my plot.

    The rust is bad, some years worse than others. 2021 (a wet year down south) was awful, the rust stripped the majority of my plants, this year its not so bad with perhaps 50% of mine unaffected. Stripping rust and burning the affected leaves is recommended, but that's an aesthetic thing more than anything as it wont get rid of it. There was a Hollyhock grower on GW last year and he chose to just ignore it, which was good enough for me! 

    I tend to choose seeds from strong, unaffected plants and sow now (September) in trays in my greenhouse where germination has always been very good. I then pot on and plant out in the spring. Dependant on their size and the site conditions a fair few of these flower that summer. If they're a bit stunted or conditions are poor they sometimes wait for the following year. Some of those that flower don't always die either and get a sort of secondary foliar growth from the base for another go the next summer so look out for that (I find this can also happen with digitalis and verbascum).

    Wild/Garden harvest seeds almost never come true but that's part of their charm. I counted 8 different shades/types in my front garden alone last year from the same batch of seeds. Mostly differing flowers but also leaf shape and texture which was very curious. 

    The one pictured will almost certainly flower next year and i'd get in in the ground asap. I actually have a few drought delayed ones a similar size that are just starting to flower now...but its been a funny year for that. 

    Best of luck with them, they're awesome plants. 
  • Alfie_Alfie_ Posts: 456
    McRazz said:
    I grow these every year as well as allow them to naturalise across my plot.

    The rust is bad, some years worse than others. 2021 (a wet year down south) was awful, the rust stripped the majority of my plants, this year its not so bad with perhaps 50% of mine unaffected. Stripping rust and burning the affected leaves is recommended, but that's an aesthetic thing more than anything as it wont get rid of it. There was a Hollyhock grower on GW last year and he chose to just ignore it, which was good enough for me! 

    I tend to choose seeds from strong, unaffected plants and sow now (September) in trays in my greenhouse where germination has always been very good. I then pot on and plant out in the spring. Dependant on their size and the site conditions a fair few of these flower that summer. If they're a bit stunted or conditions are poor they sometimes wait for the following year. Some of those that flower don't always die either and get a sort of secondary foliar growth from the base for another go the next summer so look out for that (I find this can also happen with digitalis and verbascum).

    Wild/Garden harvest seeds almost never come true but that's part of their charm. I counted 8 different shades/types in my front garden alone last year from the same batch of seeds. Mostly differing flowers but also leaf shape and texture which was very curious. 

    The one pictured will almost certainly flower next year and i'd get in in the ground asap. I actually have a few drought delayed ones a similar size that are just starting to flower now...but its been a funny year for that. 

    Best of luck with them, they're awesome plants. 
    Thanks for such a detailed response! Yeh I was looking for plants for height at the back of some cottage garden borders I am working on and these plants look stunning. I have noticed them in other gardens around our village and some are so tall they are touching the roof on some bungalows and they catch your eye from far away. 

    The ones you grow - do they fair well in partial shade or are all yours in a full sun? One of my empty borders has half of it sitting in a good amount of sun whilst the other half gets some but limited light. Wondering whether I should only plant them on the sunny half at the back. 


  • McRazzMcRazz Posts: 440
    Aim for full sun if you can.

    Areas your not sure about like partial shade, these are where I'd simply throw a handful of seeds and hope for the best.

    I have one or two in the shadow of a 2m boundary fence but they grew tall enough to get full sun by midsummer. 

    Certainly in the first year or two I'd concentrate on getting them established in the best possible places then let naturalisation take its course. 
  • msqingxiaomsqingxiao Posts: 482
    The seeds that I sowed last Mar and planted out in Jul/Aug all flowered this year. Rust yes some ended up with no leaves on the stem at all but continued flowering nonetheless... and fresh new leaves grew out of the base. So I'll wait and see if they come back next year.

    I also sowed some Antwerp mix seeds (said to be more rust-resistant) in Apr this year, and planted out in June. They are all flowering now already.... A few leaves do still have a bit of rust but I'll just leave it.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    the success of sowing direct partly depends on your mollusc situ. My foxgloves and hollyhocks never reproduce, not because they don't seed, but because the sedlings get eaten. I saw a nice little hh seedling under the parent last week. Today zilch. I am kicking myself for not potting it up right away.
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    McRazz said:
    I grow these every year as well as allow them to naturalise across my plot.

    The rust is bad, some years worse than others. 2021 (a wet year down south) was awful, the rust stripped the majority of my plants, this year its not so bad with perhaps 50% of mine unaffected. Stripping rust and burning the affected leaves is recommended, but that's an aesthetic thing more than anything as it wont get rid of it. There was a Hollyhock grower on GW last year and he chose to just ignore it, which was good enough for me! 

    I tend to choose seeds from strong, unaffected plants and sow now (September) in trays in my greenhouse where germination has always been very good. I then pot on and plant out in the spring. Dependant on their size and the site conditions a fair few of these flower that summer. If they're a bit stunted or conditions are poor they sometimes wait for the following year. Some of those that flower don't always die either and get a sort of secondary foliar growth from the base for another go the next summer so look out for that (I find this can also happen with digitalis and verbascum).

    Wild/Garden harvest seeds almost never come true but that's part of their charm. I counted 8 different shades/types in my front garden alone last year from the same batch of seeds. Mostly differing flowers but also leaf shape and texture which was very curious. 

    The one pictured will almost certainly flower next year and i'd get in in the ground asap. I actually have a few drought delayed ones a similar size that are just starting to flower now...but its been a funny year for that. 

    Best of luck with them, they're awesome plants. 
    How do you go about sowing them? Do you cover the seeds with some compost or leave them on the surface?

    I sowed some a couple of years back and the germination rate was rubbish.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Dirty Harry said:


    I sowed some a couple of years back and the germination rate was rubbish.

    interesting
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