Hollyhock spires reach for the sun

Remember hollyhocks? These tall spires of bloom can soar to 8 feet, thriving on a bit of neglect, settling themselves against old fences and barns and tempting us to gather seeds from spill-over alley plants. My grandmother, a Kansas farmer, taught me to make silky dancing dolls with hollyhock flowers, fresh green peas and toothpicks. Most gardeners remember similar youthful hollyhock adventures, especially if they grew up in the Midwest.

Hollyhocks haven't disappeared, but they're less often chosen for summer flower gardens west of the Cascades. It's not for lack of plants. Nurseries, especially those with broad selections of annuals and perennials, offer ample choices through spring. Doubled blooms seem to dominate, often those called 'Chater's Double,' with delicious colors but flowers resembling an explosion in a ruffle factory.

Varieties available: Hollyhock fans generally prefer the singles — open-facing flowers in sherbet colors (lemon, apricot, raspberry, cream). A particularly beautiful single comes in burgundy-black (Alcea rosea 'Nigra,' 'Crème de Cassis' and 'Black Beauty'). Sited where sunshine lights the petals, the dark hollyhocks enliven a flower border. The single black-flowered type has graced gardens since the 16th century, where it grew in Istanbul. If you do like the ruffles, try 'Chater's Double Apricot' and 'Peaches 'n Dreams,' as well as most other hollyhock tones.

Thompson and Morgan (www.thompson-morgan.com) offers a beautiful single mix called 'Antwerp Mixed' with the added feature of resistance to hollyhock rust. (It's Alcea filicifolia, and it may also be more perennial.)

How they grow: Most hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) are biennials, an odd botanical category they share with forget-me-nots, foxgloves and verbascum. They take two years to bloom, producing green leaves in their first season, and sending up flower stalks the second summer.

If you buy hollyhocks this month in a 4-inch pot, they'll bloom next June or July. Plants sold in one-gallon pots may be large enough to bloom in their first year. After blooming, they set seed and start over.

Starting from seed: July's the perfect month to start hollyhocks from seed for next year's bloom. Prepare a nursery bed in full sun, sprinkling the seeds evenly, then covering with ¼-inch of soil. Or start them in a seed flat, transplanting to 4-inch pots when leaves form.

Keep them moist during the growing summer. By fall you'll have strong plants ready to winter over. This is the best way to get singles in a range of colors.

What they like: Farms! They're lovers of sun, good soil and fresh breezes. The open conditions and limy soil of a well-prepared vegetable garden suit them fine. And their fondness for a spring application of manure may derive from their "farm roots." (Another cultivar is called 'Pinafore Mixed.') Most important: sun and air circulation. I've seen great clumps in Port Townsend alley edges and next to barns where they get plenty of air. Don't jam them into the back of a crowded, damp border. Sun, sun and sun.

Rust problems: Their disappearance from gardens relates to the disfiguring fungal disease rust, aptly described as it looks exactly like rust bumps. It starts on lower leaves in early spring, works up the stem and can cause defoliation, though it often doesn't affect bloom. Some growers place hollyhocks behind picket fences precisely to disguise this problem.

Keeping the plants clean will help. The fungus lives over the winter on leaves and stems, so the first defense is to remove and dispose of all infected parts at the end of the growing season, and again in early spring. Don't allow it to languish in the garden through winter.

If you do choose to use a pesticide, one less-toxic type is wettable sulfur (also allowable on organic farms). Cover the young leaves with the product before you see rust symptoms; repeat as new leaves emerge.

Hollyhocks, once established, can survive some rust and still produce their amazing blooms. They're too beautiful to avoid trying them!

Mary Robson is area horticulture agent for Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension. She shares gardening tips every Wednesday. Her e-mail is marysophia@earthlink.net.