Apparently they can Edwena. Bees and other little critters love them and will carry the pollen from flower to flower. So you may not get the color you thot you would.

I love hollyhocks but they don't seem to grow well here or at least not for long. I'm planning on planting a lot of seed in my new garden in another attempt.

There are people over on the cottage forum that probably know everything about hollyhocks.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cottage Garden forum

edwena, Hollyhocks are charming!!! I remember my grandmother's 'hocks' being a haven for giant black-lookin bumble bee buzzer bugs. (Is there an oranthologist in the house?)

Thank you, I'll check out the cottage forum. I love my hollyhocks and seem to have more colors every year,this was the first year I actually sowed seeds, all the hollyhocks that I have are volunteers. I saw a hummingbird around them today, I've been trying to lure the hummers in for years and here I didn't need to do anything! If any one wants seeds let me know, they range in color from pure white to deep pink or burgundy have to look.

Those "giant black-looking bumble bee buzzer bugs" (that made me laugh) were probably carpenter bees. Big critters aren't they? They look intimidating but for bees they're quite mellow.
What's an oranthologist?

NM- Oranthologist would be the 'misspelled' version of ornithologist which someone who studys birds (those buzzer bugs were as big as birds). I was expressing my freedom of ignorant speech. Now that you have enlightened me that they are called "carpenter bees" we can skip the bird studies and go straight to entomology which is the study of "giant black-lookin' bumble bee buzzer bugs"! z-z-z-z-z