The one on the right looks like hollyhock. Are they all the same? Too early for squash, I think. Hollyhock is a biennial. It should bloom this year if this is its second year. Save some of the seed.

Sheik Paladin,

Hollyhocks will come back from the roots the second year. That is what these look like.

Glad to hear that others think they look like hollyhocks. Been a long time since I've had any, and forgot. I think they are the same, although there is a little difference in the size and shape of the leaves on the two....This was a little box of seed from Dollar General that I just tossed out and watered a couple times last year.

Didn't know about the biennial thing. Hopefully they'll bloom this time, or my wife will want them gone. I'm for giving something that is this big, and so easy to grow a good chance.

You will see some difference in leaf shape between different kinds of hollyhocks. The leaves on the left are probably Alcea ficifolia, aka fig-leaf hollyhock or Antwerp hollyhock, and one reason I like to grow fig[leaf hollyhock is that it generally isn't bothered by hollyhock rust like normal hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) are.

Yep, the one on the left definitely is more of a fig leaf, while the right is just a tad more...elongated? The left is also (up close) more bushy and dense, while the right looks like it may be longer and more stalky. Anyway, fun to know what to expect. Years ago I had some hollyhocks, and liked the flowers.

I always have hollyhocks, but only a few of them survived last year. The extraordinary rainfall we had here (a little over 78", and our annual average is around 39") probably drowned most of them. I've sown seeds of a lot of different kinds of hollyhocks to replace the ones we lost last year. The figleaf hollyhocks are the only ones I grow on the south side of the garden which is the most visible part of the garden. The rest grow over on the north side of the garden where you can see their flowers looking lovely from a distance, but aren't close enough to notice the hollyhock rust on their leaves in a wet year. The northside is the downhill side of the sloping garden and some plants won't survive a wet year there, but since we hardly ever get two wet years in a row at our house, I planted the hollyhocks there again. I also am very fond of a plant commonly called French hollyhock, though it isn't a true hollyhock. It is a malva. It does look a lot like a hollyhock, but doesn't have the same issues with foliar diseases.