billyporter -- I'm glad to learn that you are OK!
Hollyhock photos anyone?
Here are mine, taken yesterday...most are fig leaf, "happy lights".
Close up my favorite pink ones.
So beautiful! Mine have faded and seedlings are all I have. Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures!
A couple hollyhock photos to share.
First photo: Chamois Double h.hock
Second photo:
Fig Leaf peach H.hock
... mouth watering!
Double Maroon h.hock
Single purple h.hocks
skimper..........I really like that Double Maroon h.hock. I need to add some darker colors to my collection. Mine are just starting to break out.
early_bloomer
Early_Bloomer,
I sowed seeds last year,to the double maroon h.hock.
Your fig leaf h.hocks are pretty!I can share seeds to the double maroon h.hock this fall with you.Let me know by DG mail?
I just wanted to say how beautiful your hollyhocks are!! I am trying to set up gardens on a property I bought which has much more room than I previously had. I Winter Sowed a lot and started things inside too.
For hollyhocks I just planted out about 30 of T&M's apple blossom; in my cups under the lights I have mostly doubles:
Charters yellow, Charters Light Scarlet, Charters Violet, Charters pink, Summer Carnival Rosy Pink, Charters White,
Charters Maroon, a trade called Cottage Peach Hollyhocks,
etc. I hope next year that I will have huge stands of hollyhocks all over. By buying so many different Doubles seeds, I think I can plan the colors for individual areas.
I want my gardens to be cottage gardens, and I am trying to grow so many things from seed so that I will have what makes the cottage garden so special: foxgloves, delphiniums, Shastas, Rudbeckias, Gaillardias, etc. I guess I sound as if I am bragging. I don't think I am. It's just so exciting that at 66 for the first time in my life, I have a cool climate so that I can grow primrose, lupine, and delphiniums.
Also for the first time Winter Sowing has actually worked for me, even though everything germinated so late. I have help digging my beds because I do have a weak heart. While many of you have been perfecting your gardens over the years, this is my first year of real gardens.
Even though I have a few books on design, I am still at that soldiers in a row stage rather than well thought out swaths of one kind of flower helping to create a carpet of harmonious colors and textures. But maybe after next summer, I can move things around and work on it.
Please wish this old lady gardener luck. I hope to find inspiration here from the lovely gardens you have built.
Gloriag:
Good luck! with your h.hocks and your garden planning.I went overboard this year mostly with crossed daylily seeds.I must of started at least over a hundred plus seedlings indoors under grow lights.Most of the seedlings will take two growing seasons to see blooms since my growing season is short here.
It is amazing how many varieties of flowers to grow from seed and look forward to see the first blooms.I ws last year echinacea seeds from a few types.
Here is double decker echinacea sowed from seeds that bloomed this year and will produce double flower next year.
skimper, the echinacea is lovely. Isn't it interesting how the plant select a particular flower and just change it completely, like coral bells and echinacea.
I would never have believed that coral bells would develop into a collector's dream, hostas for that matter too.
Beahive, I planted Eclipse peas this year. They can get a good size before they taste bitter. Bad news is I think they are done already. I'm keeping them watered in hopes of new blooms. Beetles might be eating your beans. They scoop out small circles.
Soulgardenlove, those are beautiful!
Figaro52, that's a nice stand of hollyhocks! Laughing over being ''OK.''
DeeS, I'm really liking the fig leaf type. Those are nice colors. The pink is gorgeous!
Skimper, chamois is good enough to eat!! Peach is so delicate.Double maroon is the most beautiful dark one I've seen!! It's almost a peony!! Single purple looks like candy!!
Early_Bloomer, I love the pinking edges and the delicate color!
Gloriag, sounds like you have more than all of us. I'd love to see pictures! Excitement isn't bragging ;o) We love to hear about everyone's flowers!! I've been planting flowers for many years and I haven't had a perfect bed yet. I need to move a lot of plants this fall!
Skimper, the coneflower is lovely!
Gloriag, I hear you. I have a few different hostas and love the Marmalade coral bell I have. I've gone for the Ruby Star, Vintage Wine, Sunrise and Sunset coneflowers.
So far I only have pink and yellow HH blooming, so I'll wait till I have more pop out for pictures. I hope to get something different, or I'll be ordering seed this fall.
This year's hollyhock patch in bloom (finally!)
Oh, Figaro, they are just lovely! The colors are so vibrant against the green. I love single hollyhocks and double ones too. I am growing single ones as well. Old Barnyard and Antwerp and Country Cottage Peach (whatever that is,) What a wonderful background they make.
Gloriag, thanks so much. These were sold to me as Barnyard hollyhocks. I started with 3 small plants in 2004. It's funny how the colors tend to change a bit from year to year! I love the double ones too. There's something very nostalgic about hollyhocks!
Figaro, those are beautiful!! Do you guys blow the diirt and bugs off them before you take a picture LOL!
None of mine have more than a bloom or two at a time yet, and I see a lot of brown buds that aren't going to open. These are growing on the east garage wall and have afternoon shade. Maybe they need more sun. I really don't have more sun unless I put them back in the garden and that's out.
It's a good year for hollyhocks. I have 4 large patches of them this year and the Japanese. beetles aren't hitting them too hard yet.
early_bloomer
Great photos! billyporter, I don't know about the others, but nope--I don't notice bugs or dirt on my hollyhocks? A few spiders but that would be all I ever see on mine.
Billy, thanks for the compliment. No bugs or dirt on mine, either. The Japanese beetles weren't so bad this year -- of course 10 of my roses had drowned during the winter so the JBs probably starved to death!
I just found this link, and I agree- a great year for HH's!!! Cactuspatch, who'da thunk- hollyhocks in NM??? It's neat to see a cottage garden out west!
This is my ancient peach single. I can could on 3 or 4 huge canes to 7' each year (it must self-seed). This year, it is bigger and earlier than ever!:
...and, lucky me, others are popping up for the 1st time! A pink:
...I also have a dark purple for the first time!!!! It is just coming along w/ one blossom. We have had such heavy, soaking rains that the young stalks tipped over. I have staked the purple and another yet to bloom; they are just beginning to start growing straight. I can't wait!
Normally I have JB's, and I squash like crazy. This year I seem to have more birds than ever and LOTS fewer JB's! I put up decorative bird houses in my garden, and a brown creeper moved in and laid eggs! I wonder if they're enjoying the Asian cuisine ;0) ?
BTW, the absolute WORST thing you can do is put out those Japanese beetle bait traps! I tried this about 5 years ago, and was hip-deep in the disgusting critters! I couldn't empty the bait bags fast enough, but they weren't all going for the bait, they were eating the plants, too. I had more than my share of JB's for the next 4 years; I'm finally in a downswing.
Oh, it's a great year for sunflowers, too!!! We should start a thread.
This is 'Bashful' today:
Pretty sunflower. I can't wait for mine to bloom!
The hollyhocks started today. Yeah!
This lavender cleome is beautiful
OMG! Everyone's hollyhocks are sooo gorgeous! They take me back to my childhood on the farm. Love them. Unfortunately, so do the Japanese Beetles!
So many lovely photos. Yes, Jax4ever I would think you have seen the old photos of adobe homes with hollyhocks planted out front? Or the many paintings available of them? I know that Georgia O'Keefe painted many and I have several by contemporay artists. This came up with just a quick search. My Grandmother was in NM since 1917 and always had hollyhocks.
http://www.mariemassey.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=keyalbum.KeywordAlbum&g2_keyword=adobe&g2_page=2
I do not know anything about JB but when we want to put out fly traps with bait, we put them way back at the rear of our property. Maybe that would work with the JB bait too?
Pretty pictures!!! Well, I learned something new! I never paid much attention to hollyhocks until that peach one! I started w/ roses, but there is so much more to grow.
I don't know if I'd mess w/ Japanese beetle bait unless I drove about 400 miles from my house! The directions say to put the lure in the farthest corner of your property from your flowers. I'd say maybe Antarctica would be our best bet!
My favorite peach one is blooming beautifully. The others have a ton of rust. Not so pretty. Patti
Oooohhh, the hydrangea are gorgeous, too!!!
I put in 5 hydrangea last fall- just one is blooming so far.
That looks like my peach hollyhock. It must be 10' by now! To high to pick the beetles, but I don't have many this year. I squashed 5 today- all I could find!
Jax4ever, I haven't looked for the dreaded beetles, too afraid. That Oakleaf Hydrangea that I grew from a root cutting is at least 12 feet tall and the hollyhocks are not far behind. Love them both. Here is a shot taken of them a few days before they really got cranked on July 6th. Patti
Patti, you are living my dream!
I am originally from Gloucester, but visited Nantucket for the 1st time 2 years ago, and it's really where I want to be! I want a large plot of sunny land w/ a horse or 2. Of course, I'll have to wait until I hit Megamillions or marry Donald Trump (neither likely- of course Donald Trump marries anew about every few months it seems, so we all may have a shot).
I would like a couple of horses, but not the Donald. Hope you win the big one. I grew up in Oklahoma with a quarter horse and miss the riding, but not the barn chores. The closest I get these days is an occasional annoying horsefly, but I do love my island paradise even without a horse. I moved here year round in 1969. I first came to work in the summer in 1964. It was home within the first 3 hours. I just knew. Another group of hollyhocks that are pink on the east side of the house Patti
Beautiful gardens all! Here is my newest hollyhock blooming today near my cottage shed.
This delphinium was hiding in back of one of my beds. So pretty!
Must remember to move it up for closer viewing for next summer!
Daisy's..daisy's..daisy's all over the place. Sure wish they smelled good. It is a bit overwhelming..and not in a good way! P.U!
Patti, you'd get lots of free manure... more from Donald than a horse... har ;0)
GORGEOUS posies, everybody!!!