Hollyhocks Bring Height and a Fascinating History to the Garden

Intended to revisit the subject of lilies, but on my daily rounds, spotted some incredible stands of hollyhocks and just had to wax eloquent on the subject.  Towering 3-foot or more, these plants with the odd name are tough to miss. The name possibly has several origins: from ‘holy hoc’ or ‘holy mallow’  (hollyhocks are members of the mallow of Malvaceae family) or because the Crusaders brought it with them to England as a  salve for sore horse’s hocks. Hollyhocks make up for the fact that they are short-lived, by having a high seed-propagation rate. Perennials or biennials, though they may die out every couple years, their seeds are busily spreading them everywhere. Long taproots make them tough to transplant.

Most hollyhock varieties originated in Asia. Historic Shogun used them on their official seals and in modern-day Japan, Kyoto hosts a hollyhock festival and a soccer club uses the flower as a symbol on its gear.  In Europe, the theologian-botanist Albertus Magnus advised the condemned to use the plant as an antidote for the ‘trial by fire’ commonly practiced in medieval times. It was praised as a cure-all for just about anything that ailed you and as a dye. It was one of the first plants imported to the New World. The plant is also related to Rose of Sharons commonly rampaging in North Fork yards and gardens.

One of our daughters has a whole colony of them in her garden, in a whole range of colors. Hollyhocks in my garden are less prolific, but have turned up in an unusual near-black. The garden I spotted this afternoon had a wild mix of mallows and hollyhocks growing side-by-side, probably because both plants do very well in hot, dry conditions. I can’t think of a more interesting plant to add height to the back of a flower bed.