Biennial?
Recently, on Gardeners' World, Carol said that holly hocks are biennial, and I'm sure she knows what she's talking about. However, I have some holly hocks in my garden that are flowering for the second year running.
I grew them from seed in the spring of 2014. They grew nicely but didn't put them in the beds because I didn't know what colour they were, so I waited and waited. I had no idea they didn't flower in the first year of their lives!
Luckily, the next spring they did and I put them in. They grew to about ten feet in height and flowered all summer long.
In October,when I was tidying up the garden, I broke off their long stalks (didn't even cut them) and left them to do the same next year.
The turquoise circle shows the broken off, old stem.
This year, my two pink ones have come back - rust and all have produced several slightly shorter stems and plenty of beautiful flowerins. Unfortunately, the creamy ones have behaved as Carol said they would and they're nowhere to be seen.
The pink ones are over six feet tall.
A second, equally well flowering bunch. Sorry about the lack of photogrphic skills!
Are there exceptions to this biennial business, or WHAT?
Posts
https://garden.org/nga/searchqa/answer/21525/ ; tricky one this ; might find some answers here .
Foxgloves sometimes behave like this .
I think they are often grown as biennials but in the right place they'll go several years. I love hollyhocks but rust affects them so badly that I've stopped growing them
In the sticks near Peterborough
I totally agree ; rust seems endemic to the poor things . For aesthetic reasons , removal of badly affected leaves is the only viable option .
Are there no newer varieties that are resistant to the rust? It's such a shame.
I've had varieties said to be resistant to rust in the past, Mark. They don't resist hard enough
Maybe something better now. I passed some today, they look brilliant every year as I drive by. I don't stop and look closely, that might spoil it all
In the sticks near Peterborough
The only way I can grow hollyhocks are certain types like peaches n dreams, if started early enough will flower at the end of the first summer. I lose all and any to rust over the first winter.
Hi ChrissieB
Thank you for your reply.
I love your observation, " they don't bother to read the text books ?"
I've reread my post and started to laugh about my lack of commas, parentheses and paragraphs. It would seem that I'd forgotten all about their existence. As to my "beautiful flowerins", my creativity knows no bounds tonight!
I'm still laughing!
Thank you, PaulB3, it's interesting and helpful in its way.