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hollyhocks
Guernsey Donkey2
Posts: 6,713
in Talkback
I took heed of Carol Klien and collected a selection of seeds after the flowers had faded last year - not only hollyhocks but also Geum, Teasels and foxgloves. I now have some stunning plants after sowing the seed in my cold GH around October/November time. They are big enough to be planted out but feel that it is too early and will wait another month or so. My question is will the plants be true to form i.e. the hollyhock was white so will the seeds produce white hollyhocks. Also is it better to start with fresh hollyhocks each year as I have been told that these plants can get rust in their second year of growing. Thank you.
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Hollyhock seeds collected from your plants will not come true to type and the flowers could be any colour. Ditto the geums though they will more likely be on the red and yellow part of the spectrum. The foxgloves may have crossed with any others in your neighbourhood so if you started with the wild form, you might now have something a little different. The teasels should be absolutely the same as the parent plant.
Many people grow hollyhocks from one year to the next without any problems at all so it rather depends whether or not you have rampant rust in your neighbourhood. From experience, they can get rust in their first month.
I've had rust on Hollyhocks when the first true leaves appear. I've never had them flower without it.
They're all hardy plants so start putting them outside on non-freezing days to harden off. That doesn't take long from a cold GH. If we get a warm spell I'd put them out and leave them out.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thank you for your helpful advice - I will try hardening these tougher plants by putting them just outside the GH on warmer days and I will be interested to see just what colours my hollyhock flowers turn out to be! Does the rust actually kill the plants or alter the hollyhock flowers in any way?
All my rust infested hollyhocks have been weakened but I have never let them hang around long enough to die a natural death.
The flowers look OK mostly so grown at the back of the border behind other stuff or viewed from a distance, they look OK. There's a bog group I drive past sometimes, it looks great from a moving car but I bet they look rough close to.
In the sticks near Peterborough
My hollyhocks are already covered, I planted out the seedling in the autumn. I had blamed the warm wet winter but maybe its just the hollyhocks that are the problem.
I guess I will be pulling them up
cba to fight it forever