Grow and care for hollyhocks.
What Is Included in This Post:
Hollyhocks vs Marshmallows
When Do Hollyhocks Bloom
Preparing Your Hollyhock Garden for Success
Planting Hollyhock Plants
How to Harvest Hollyhocks
How to Prune Hollyhock Plants
What Is the Climate for Hollyhock Plants
How to Grow Hollyhocks From Seeds
Pests and Diseases of Hollyhock Plants
Hollyhocks bring delight to the garden with their tall gorgeous mid-summer blooms. Did you know that the whole hollyhock plant is completely edible offering medicinal benefits, including roots, blossoms, and leaves?
Hollyhocks can be a great substitute for the related herb plant called marshmallow. These plants can be beneficial to our health helping with inflammation of the respiratory tract, cough, stomach ulcers, bowel issues, urinary tract inflammation, and bladder stones.
Hollyhocks and marshmallow roots can be used in making homemade incense with other herbs from your garden. I will make a post on how to make homemade incense and link it here with an update. Homemade incense is simple to make providing a great sense of relaxation knowing you are enjoying the aroma from the plants you have grown in your garden! Besides the complete beauty and ease of growing hollyhocks, I enjoy using the roots for making homemade incense!
Hollyhocks vs Marshmallows
While the marshmallow plant offers softer roots than hollyhocks, I choose to grow hollyhocks over marshmallows simply because hollyhocks’ blooms are bigger and brighter, at least in my humble opinion!
I have been growing hollyhocks for four years. The hollyhock plants in my cottage garden are a deep maroon color. I plan to start adding a variety of colors of hollyhocks to my cottage garden. They are biannuals, meaning they have a two-year lifespan. In the first year, they produce their bushy leaves and establish their root systems and then they bloom in their second year. They produce a ton of seeds and self-seed their beds making them seem as if they are perennials.
In this post, we explore how to grow, care for, and harvest hollyhocks and how to preserve hollyhock roots, leaves, and blooms.
Let’s learn more about hollyhocks!
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When Do Hollyhocks Bloom
Hollyhocks bloom mid-summer reaching six to eight feet tall with blooms all up and down the stem. You can expect to see hollyhocks bloom from July to September. To me, it is a joy to grow and care for hollyhocks each summer!
After pruning back hollyhocks, they may have enough time and energy to produce new flowers later in the summer.
Preparing Your Hollyhock Garden for Success
You must prepare your hollyhocks each season for successful blooming cycles by preparing ahead of time with proper pruning and care. Hollyhocks are pretty low maintenance and their splendid blooming cycles can last for several months.
- Hollyhocks bloom mid-summer from July to September.
- Hollyhocks are low maintenance.
Planting Hollyhock Plants
Selecting the site: Hollyhocks need full sun to bloom so be sure to select a site that receives at least six to eight hours of sunlight.
Preparing the soil: Apply nutrient-rich compost to the soil and sew hollyhock seeds in early spring. Hollyhocks need soil with good drainage. You can perform an easy soil drainage test with my other post 4 Easy DIY Garden Soil Tests to Do Now to get an idea of how well your soil drains and how to improve your soil and what steps to take.
How to Harvest Hollyhocks
To me, harvesting hollyhock roots is the fun part of growing my own hollyhocks. I love the splendid hollyhock roots and use them for crafting my own incense.
To harvest hollyhock roots, wait until the plant is spent and ready to be pulled from the garden. The plant will be ready for crafting medicinal uses or incense.
Using your shovel, remove spent plants midmorning, just after the morning dew has dried, and before the scorching sun hits the hollyhocks.
- Wait until the plants are spent.
- Wait until midmorning just after the morning dew and before the scorching sun arrives.
- Remove spent plants with your shovel.
Dry out the hollyhock roots in a single layer for several days until they are completely dry. You can dry whole heads, and buds, or remove the petals and roots first before drying, depending on how you want to use them. I love crumbling my dry hollyhock petals and roots and leaves into a crumble or a powder, depending on how I plan to use them.
How to Prune Hollyhock Plants
Take note that pruning hollyhocks are the first step in maintaining the good quality care they need to thrive. Pruning properly can help them produce gorgeous blooms and prevent diseases from spreading from season to season.
Know when to prune your hollyhock plants by the zone you are in with this easy guide:
- Zones 3 and 4: May.
- Zones 5, 6, and 7: March or April.
- Zone 8: February or March.
- Zone 9: January or February.
- Zone 10: January.
What You Can Do
Cut all dead stems to the base of the plant. Dead stems are brown inside while living stems are green inside. Dead stems are no good, so get rid of all of them.
Ensure that you clean up all pruned stems and spent blooms from the ground to prevent the diseased stems from contaminating the plant. You took the time to remove the dead stems, therefore take the time to remove them from the area completely, and do not allow them to stay on the ground to rot.
- Cut and remove all dead stems to the base of the plant. (Dead is brown inside while alive is green inside).
- Remove all pruned stems and spent blooms from the area to prevent the spread of disease (keep the soil healthy).
What Is the Climate for Hollyhock Plants
Hollyhocks do best in zones 3 to 8, however, they can tolerate extreme temperatures when they are adapted to them and cared for really well.
Hollyhocks can tolerate cold temperatures down to 5 degrees F. If your temperature reaches further below this temperature, it is best to cover them by wrapping them in a garden blanket to protect them.
How to Grow Hollyhocks From Seeds
Hollyhocks are easy to grow from seed. They self-seed themselves and you have the option of digging up some of them to share with others.
Hollyhocks can tend to get ratty looking and crowded quickly, so be sure to dig some of them up and place them in other beds or give them away to friends and family, they make wonderful gifts! This helps keep your hollyhock garden neat and tidy and beautiful.
Pests and Diseases of Hollyhock Plants
Hollyhock gardens can be affected by pests and diseases. While these types of pests and diseases can be devastating to your hollyhock garden, you can take proactive measures to protect your hollyhock plants. You can take organic natural approaches to combat common pests and diseases in your hollyhock garden. You can grow and care for hollyhocks successfully.
List of Holly Garden Pests
- Japanese beetle.
- Weevils.
- Sawflies.
List of Hollyhock Garden Diseases
- Rust.
- .Puccinia malvacearum.
Summary
I hope I have inspired you to grow and care for your own hollyhock plants.
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I invite you to check out some more of my posts!
How to Grow and Care for Roses
Blessings,
The Off Grid Barefoot Girl
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