Tuesday, July 1, 2014

yes to hollyhocks

There's a very small flower bed next to the front steps - it's about three by four feet. And a number of years ago I bought some perennial hollyhocks and put them in this bed. They grew to eight feet tall! A medley of colors - yellow, pink, white and deep maroon. They were fabulous at first, but soon their leaves got chewed-looking, which wasn't so good, and after a few years of this I thought maybe they weren't suited for this area and decided to pull them up. But they came back the next year.

My brother even got into that small space once, with a shovel, and dug them out (I can see him in my mind's eye even now). They still returned the next year.



I tried again one year by layering newspaper all over the bed, knowing it would also kill my daffodils, but I had to get rid of those hollyhocks. Still, they were there again the following spring.
I know their leaves by now - I know a hollyhock leaf in a second!

You may think I dislike them. I assure you, I love them. What anglophile doesn't dream of a cottage-style garden? And what cottage garden doesn't include hollyhocks? Did I say they were at least six feet tall? Usually seven, sometimes eight? I loved them. But they would look so buggy and awful.


Anyway, what I'm getting at is this - these are not old pictures. They want to stay? Okay - stay! It's yes to hollyhocks from now on.

I give up.  I'm even happy.

4 comments:

  1. I love hollyhocks. I had them in my former garden, but somehow they haven't arrived here in this one. Hmm, perhaps I should put some in, so next year they can rejoice at their final arrival in amongst the other under tended things. ;-)

    So pretty and so old fashioned.
    Kimmie
    mama to 8
    one homemade and 7 adopted

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  2. Oh! I would love it if our hollyhocks will do half this well, Lisa. We have just planted seeds and look forward to seeing them next year.

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  3. Gorgeous, Lisa. I love Hollyhocks. Ours got rust on them too, and I know my mom keeps moving hers around due to bugs and rust issues. The blooms are always so impressive and sweet regardless of how the leaves look, though, so they're more than worth it in my book. Yours look lovely.

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  4. We used to have them. Some in pink like yours, if I remember correctly, and some in gorgeous, gorgeous deep, deep red.
    They're gone now. I don't know what happened, but I think I'll want them again, one day. I loved that deep, deep red.

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