Hollyhocks, what isn’t to love about them, they are a classic cottage garden plant. There massive flower spike in bloom, they sure make a statement in the garden. I remember hollyhocks in our garden near our front door as a kid, they are a plant you don’t forget.
Hollyhocks are an easy plant to grow with very limited pest problems, they start easily from seed and a perfect plant for a beginner gardener to grow. Here is how we grow our hollyhocks from seed, care for them and problems we have ran into.
When to Plant Hollyhock
Here in Perth, we can grow our hollyhocks all year round, however they slow down a lot over winter and in the heat of summer require some shade and protection. We sow our seed in either in autumn or spring.
How to Sow Hollyhock Seed
We like to sow our hollyhock seed in seedling tray as you can control the environment and flower colours. Hollyhock seeds take 10=14 days to germinate and germinate best when soil temperatures are between 18-28 degrees. We also have a lot of self-seeded hollyhocks come up.
Where to Grow your Hollyhocks
Hollyhock grow best in full sun, live between 2 and 5 years and don’t like to have the soil around them disturbed. When planting our hollyhocks, we like to enrich the soil by adding some homemade compost, manure, organic slow release fertilser and mulch.
How to Transplant your Hollyhocks
We like to transplant our seedlings when they have 4-5 leaves and about 10cm tall. Plant them about 50cm apart. When transplanting them just keep a eye on the weather as you don’t want to transplant them during a heatwave and want about a weeks’ worth of good weather to transplant them. If by chance the weather changes you can cover them with a piece of shade cloth and make sure they have plenty of water and mulch.
When do Hollyhocks Flower?
Hollyhocks take between 150 – 200 days to flower. They will continue to flower depending on the variety for between 2-5 years.
How to Care for you Hollyhocks
Hollyhock require very little maintenance but if you live in a high wind area you will need to stake your flower spikes and once the flower spikes are past there prime prune them back to ground. Remove any dead and diseased foliage.
Because hollyhocks can grow for between 2-5 years and are heavy feeders, you will need to make sure you are fertilising regularly. In the autumn and spring add some homemade compost, manure and mulch.
Can I Save the Seed from Hollyhock?
We save the seed from our hollyhock and its very easy to do. Just let the flower spike die off and seeds dry out. Collect the seeds and they can be resown. Don’t forget to label your seeds so you can remember what colour they were.
Common Problems with Hollyhocks
We hadn’t had many issues with our hollyhocks except for the odd snail and slug, but recently have found both aphids and scale on our hollyhocks.
Snails and Slugs
Snails and Slugs love to eat tender shoot and young seedlings. To protect our seedling once transplanted, we go out at night and check our plants for snails and slugs. If you find your having lots of snails and slugs which seem to be out of control, here is how we control them.
Aphids
These are small sap sucking insect usually found on new tender shoots and underneath leaves. We recently found these on new flower spike. If caught early when their number are few you can just squash them and monitor for the return and repeat the process. You can also spray them off with a garden hose or spray them with a horticultural oil.
Scale
Scales are another sap sucking insect, there a many different types of scales from hard scales, soft scale and cottony cushion scale. We found our scale on a old flower spike so we just removed and disposed of it, but if scale was on any other section of the plant we would just squashed them. If you’re finding, they are out of control or have plants infested in them you can spray them with a horticultural oil.
Here are some other pests and diseases you may come across
Caterpillars
Caterpillars can burrow into the buds and eating the flowers. Check your plants regularly for caterpillars. If you see a caterpillar or its egg remove them and dispose of them. You can also spray with a bacterial spray called bacillus thuringienses.
Rust
This is a fungal disease that causes rusty orange-brown spots on the leaves. This can be avoided by watering at ground level and allow plants have correct spacing. Remove and dispose of dead or diseased foliage.