Jackie, it looks like hollyhock to me; just the old-fashioned barnyard type. That would be Alcea rosea, a biennial. It's definitely not Alcea ficifolia (fig-leaf hollyhock, which tends to be more perennial).

I've experienced the same thing with them sprouting in a place they grew many years before. It wasn't decades, but probably 10-15 years. I cleared a bed and started from scratch (I thought! lol), and up popped the healthiest and prettiest hollyhocks I ever grew.

Yours look especially robust (isn't everything in CA?). It would take tons of fertilizer and compost to encourage that growth here. Plus, since most hollyhocks are biennial, I'm a bit surprised it's sending up bloom stalks...because that's what you have. Normally A. rosea grows a mound of leaves the first year, and only send up stalks in its second year. But you have very stout, healthy bloom stalks there, regardless of the year of their growth. And it does look like to me that you won't have long to wait before the top portion bursts out in bloom.

Ain't Mother Nature grand?

John

Thank you! So happy that you think it will bloom! This area, about a year ago, was cleared of 2 giant bushes (the two bushes took up 100% of the space which is now inside of the deer fence, and had NEVER been fed in living memory). It did get some commercial mulch dug into the bare dirt after that, but I have not put any fertilizer on it since. I always complain that roses in my garden always get larger than any of the books or web sites say they will - I guess I should stop complaining - if a plant likes our climate, they all seem to go crazy!

Jackie

In my childhood, we had hollyhocks along the steps up to the kitchen. In fifteen years (that I remember) I never saw leaves that healthy. Always they were eaten by something. And then the Japanese Beetles would go after the flowers.

Your plants have outwitted their predators; they outlasted them magnificently.

It's probably the rose soil. A friend in North Carolina had a place she dumped the soil from her pot grown minis. (She was a zone 5). She tossed some underperforming hostas in the same area. The next year the hosta leaves were at least 18inches across.

I gave up spraying for anything 25 years ago. Our lot is FULL of birds (including about 10 species which nest in our trees) and good insects. We have identified over 50 different species of birds which we have seen on our property over the years. Also tons of ladybugs, soldier bugs, wasps, garden spiders, & about a dozen kinds of bees. Perhaps the bugs & birds are keeping the bad insect pests down?

Jackie

Lovely plant. My grandparents and parents kept hollyhocks along the sides of the barn, the machine shed, the garage.

I do find it rather ironic that this plant is amazing lots of people with how well it is growing, how healthy the leaves, etc. What is ironic, of course, is that gardeners can select, plant carefully, and feed carefully (sometimes with enormous effort of home made food) a plant to only have it do "OK", or less than hoped for. Volunteer plants, (weeds included), however, seem to thrive without any of that fussing!

Jackie

Interesting...now I have to post a comment to see the last few comments at all.

Jackie

I used to have giant hollyhocks like that in my yard, but they got terrible rust after reseeding for a few years. I even had rust on the ficifolia cultivars. I thought that was a common SF Bay Area problem.

I now have to write a new comment to be able to see the entire thread.

RBEHS - I get some rust (the kind that grows on roses) on some of my mid 20th century roses in the Fall, (only 3 of my 100+ roses) but in the past when I have grown mostly fig leaf hollyhocks, no rust on them. Obviously no rust on this new one, either. I will keep my eyes out for it - I know how to control it if it tries to show up. Thanks for the heads up!

Jackie