PlantFiles: Hollyhock
Alcea rosea 'Indian Spring'

This rating could be positive, since its growth and imminent flowering is a major boon to my garden, but I am starting to notice a fungal infection on one leaf on one of my many plants.
I sowed these in mid April, and three months later, my robust crop was 4' high and about to flower! They get morning shade and intense afternoon heat. I avoid watering them except if they start to droop, which really hasn't been a problem yet...especially since I have a Puccinia malvacearum infestation on one patch. The hollyhock rust struck, with the "small light reddish brown pustules" on the underside of a variety of leaves, old, young, healthy...Nevertheless, the plants are continuing to flower into November, even if they are looking very droopy and unkempt.

I love this flower, epecially massed together, but I have given up on it because of the continuous fungal problems and slug problems. It self sowed like mad, and I'd find healthy little seedlings popping up, but before they send up blooming stalks they were usually eaten to lace or crusted with rusty spots. I don't have time or energy for plants that need constant coddling to bloom, and unfortunately it looks like hollyhocks are one of those plants in my garden.

I still have the occasional volunteer, though, and when one of those blooms it's always a pleasant surprise.

'Indian Spring' bloomed this summer after being winter sowed. Flowers are large, single blossoms in shades of pale yellow, hot pink, and deep rose; foliage has been remarkably pest-free.