PlantFiles: Hollyhock
Alcea rosea 'Indian Spring'

I though the hibiscus looking flowers on this variety were nice. They needed a bit of staking to stay up, they really wanted to flop over. I started mine indoors in December and it was early enough to tricke them into blooming first year.

Warning for southern California: I had serious trouble with scale infesting my hollyhocks and the rubbing alcohol didn't work to get them off. The plants made it to bloom and seed, but the scale seriously uglified the leaves :/

This rating could be positive, since its vigor was a major boon to my garden, but Puccinia malvacearum, the hollyhock rust struck, with the "small light reddish brown pustules" on the underside of a variety of leaves, old, young, healthy.
I sowed these in mid April, and three months later, my robust crop was 4' high and about to flower! They got morning shade and intense afternoon heat. Even with the rust I enjoyed one season of the flowers, into November. Come spring however the rust was total and complete, disfiguring what tried to be perennial and requiring total demolition of the area. I am planting native shrubs in that area now, no more risks.

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.