I'm thinking of trying them also. I love hollyhocks but they are also a favorite of Japanese Beetles, which tend to shred the flowers before you get a good look at them.

They are most often biennials - meaning they have to go through one winter in order to mature and become blooming size. But there are some that will bloom the first year under certain conditions and there are some that are perennials.

I did a little more research and they say that they grow best in cool humid climates. Humid i have, but cool it's not. They also call it a perennial.

Evidentally there is a long list of diseases and pests that are drawn to hollyhocks around here so you don't see them in yards as often as you do out west or in the Rocky Mountain states. Some catalogs offer Russian species (not hybrids) that show some immunity to some of the problems and are perennials. I thought the mini ones were a hybrid. At least its good to know that someone out there is working on this group of plants and making better, stronger, and longer lived versions for those of us that like them.

I planted a Zebrina in a large bed that already had lots of other plants. Rabbits singled out that one plant and ate it to the ground!
So...I don't know how they do around here.

i think the palnt you are seeing is sidalacea. i found seed one yr, but never had much luck with it. and, my friend gave me some from here mo's place in PA, but didn't have much luck with those, either. makes sense if they don't like heat. malvaceas- zebrina & magic/mystic merlin & the like, do just fine here. tammy

Even the Russian one (Alcea rugosa) isn't necessarily a reliable perennial. I raised mine from seed from Select Seeds and so far they have behaved like biennials. Perhaps the voles got to them but I think they just died. So I collect seeds every year. They were lovely although the Japanese beetles do like them. I read that the singles are more resistent to rust than the doubles.

i have a reg height single really veiny pink that gets rust & jap beetles each yr, but has come back faithfully for at least 4 seasons now, and blooms for a long time- like 2-3mos. i haven't had barely any seedlings, so i assume it's not self fertile, or at least not terribly so. i keep some of the seed each yr in case, but it keeps coming back. since its foilage is hidden largely by a butterfly bush, i don't sweat it. i had a black single for about 5 yrs- same thing, rust & jb's, but came back anyhow. i think eventually the crowns get so woody they strangle themselves. at least that's what appeared to happen to the black.

my friend has tons of zebrina, and i've not noticed much rust on hers, but i haven't been looking, either. i think the jb's bother them some, but she has lots of roses for them to eat instead. i know she says they're fairly short lived & don't like to be moved, so she collects seed & lets them seed around themselves some as well. t

tammy, do you have to treat the soil in any way when there's been a history of rust there. I'm going to have to buy hh plants this year and at that price I don't want to risk putting them in a diseased bed. Thanks, claire

Pup, we have hollyhock in four packs right now for 1.95. I think around 12 different kinds. We will be potting them up individually at some point. I am on a mission to get all the four packs we have. This week I purchased one of each of the foxgloves in four packs. Don't wait too long. Adele

Spring Hill's dwarfs are sidalceas. You could order seed for Hollyhock 'Queeny Purple' from Parks. One site said it's an annual that blooms in the same year from a Feb-March sowing. Anyone tried it?

i'd assume if you want to completely avoid rust in the future, you should treat for it, but i don't really know how. it's endemic. you could try asking rhizo. he/she seemed to know a lot about it on that other thread. i basically ignore it, since it doesn't do my plants in. i do that with most diseases, actually. laziness, partly; an aversion to strong chemicals, partly. i do keep an eagle eye out for it on my apples- it's bad news on them. i know the type they get has part of its life cycle on cedar trees. hence, cedar-apple rust. since apples are in the same family as roses, etc., i guess they could get it, but haven't noticed any on them. mostly in my yard i've seen it on the hh's, morning glory, potentilla(when i had them), and my red raspberries(but it didn't come back last yr, thank goodness). you could try the black plastic solar sterilization technique. and/or you could also try messenger to build up the plant's immune systems. i haven't used it, but have heard really good things about it. keeping leaves that get rust picked off help, too, if it's on a small scale. of course, that doesn't work if the whole plant's infested. best of luck!

Thanks, Tammy. I keep all the debris picked up. I may email Rhizo to see what she thinks. I never had rust before last fall, but it was a total blight, so I'm apprehensive about seedlings now.

My hollyhocks come back every year, just plain pink and peach singles, but maybe they are reseeding themselves at the plant base so they just look like they are perennial? They are extremely drought-tolerant when established - mine got no extra water last summer. I do have to pick off a few Japanese beetles - sevin isn't good becasue it kills the bees and butterflies that are drawn to the flowers as well. It's only a couple of weeks that the bugs have to be picked off every morning, and the flowers bloom all season. I do spray for deer, becasue they find 'em tasty too. I find that the soil here make mine dwarf (3-4 ft) without any special cultivar. No staking.

claire, rusts are very specific for certain plants. If you have weed mallow, it can hide there, or in old hollyhock debris, as you know. You can treat seedlings and young plants with fungicide to prevent again, but if I were you, I'd eliminate mallow family plants for one year and start fresh. The pathogen is still everywhere in low concentration, so you'll still have to be careful about overcrowding the plants or leaving the leaves wet for more than 8-10 hours. Pick off and destroy any leaves that show infection.

brenda, they probably are true perenns, if sometimes short lived ones, for you. i've had the same experience. as i said in my earlier post, though- watch when the centers get real woody, because that's normally when i've lost mine. maybe the singles are more prone to perennializing?- all the ones i've heard of or seen doing it have been single. mine gets to about 5-6' by season's end, but i haven't had to stake.

boy, i'd sure have a tough time eliminating all mallow plants in my garden! i guess i've just learned to live with the rust since it isn't fatal for me(well, my holly's actually). i haven't noticed the rust on any of the other family members, though. i'll have to watch closer this yr. tam

I've had rust for years and could never get rid of it. My HollyHocks are antique,probably 60-100 years old. I brought them to town with me from the farm we lived on for many years. They are biennials and some grow to 12-14 feet high! But they don't look pretty with no leaves and I've started pulling them out. Has anyone tried the solution from Trowel and Error (baking soda, vinegar and Ivory soap) that I saw mentioned in another post?

I got seeds from Parks this spring and planted them. They came up quite easily on the heating pad in March. We had a late, wet spring so I didn't put them outside until June. They are blooming finally here in August--and yes, it is their first year. They are about 2 feet tall in my pots on the deck and look really cute with almost full-sized flowers. I recommend them to anyone looking for color in the heat of summer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden of Home