Does anyone know how to get hollyhocks to start growing the main stem. I have several plants and only one has grown the main stem. It’s about 6 feet tall now and looks like it will be blooming any day.
The others, though, are healthy, but still just growing more and more leaves from the base. I’m sure I should thin the leaves, but do I cut out the 2 foot long 8 inch wide old leaves or the skinny new leaves? Does thinning them encourage the main stem to start growing?
The one plant that did make a main stem is growing about a foot a week. But the other plants seem to be content to just grow leaves.
They are grown from seeds and are less than a year old if that matters. Can anyone help me with these things?
Jim
Jim, hope someone can help with this – I’m curious too. I’ve been told that hollyhocks grown from seed don’t bloom for two years.
If my grandma was alive, she’d know. Woman had such a green thumb. She planted lemon seeds and the bush actually produced three lemons – this was in her house, here in Iowa. Made the front page of the Wright County Monitor.
She always had hollyhocks – we used to make “dolls” out of the flowers and the buds.
From http://www.life101.com – I assume it’s okay to quote them:
"For their first year your hollyhocks will bear leaves only. The more leaves the better. Dress the soil around them with compost, rotted or mushroom manure or seaweed.
Once the leaves have died back for winter, you can give your plants a little extra treat. Rock Phophate or bonemeal is good for feeding the roots of the plants, so that they will be hardy. Some people swear by fireplace ashes strewn about. This helps with flowers."
So don’t cut the leaves.
Oops. Misread the site – it’s http://www.suite101.com – lots of tips for growing hollyhocks.
Hot diggity; synchronicity hits again. I just planted some new hollyhocks, after the others turned brown and fell over. At least there’s green stuff bursting out of the ground.
Lessee, seaweed? Nah, live in the midwest. No fireplace; will dumping the ashtrays help? Mushroom leavings? Make stock out of 'em.
'Scuse me while I say a few parting words over my hollyhock shoots and go bond with my salvia.
Sigh.
Veb
I wish I had experience with hollyhocks, I love them. But I can’t grow em in Mississippi, the climate ain’t right.
Please enjoy yer blooms for me!
I checked that site. Thanks. I guess mine are kinda doing what they are supposed to do. It said that seeds sowed last year should bloom this year.
I’m sure mine are confused about which year this is since we didn’t have a winter here in north Texas. They didn’t die back at all over the winter. Neither did anything else except my marigolds in February.
I didn’t understand this:
“For more flower stalks, pinch out the growing tips once or twice early in the growing season. This gives shorter plants with more branches.”
Does that mean after the stalk starts to grow, but before it gets tall? Or, are you suppose to do something while there are just leaves growing.
TV, so you know how to grow these things, huh?
elelle, well come on over here to Texas and you can help me grow these things. I’m sure I will enjoy them once they start blooming.
Jim
Hollyhocks are biennials. Meaning, they grow leaves the first year to build up energy to flower the next. My book says you can get them to bloom a second time, if you cut the flowering stem almost to the ground after it finishes blooming, and you continue feeding and watering the plants. It says to feed two or three times through the growing season and water as needed. It takes a lot out of the plants to do that, so this is why they need to be well fed.
My grandmother knew how to grow Hollyhocks very well. So well in fact that I’ve done virtually nothing except let them take over a couple spots next to the house where she orginally planted them. I would suggest trying to keep them shorter or supporting them with string and sticks. I’ve had some that will reach 10 feet or so and wind and rain, especiially after they bloom, can do a number on them fast.
I guess mine are doing what they are suppose to do. I don’t know how I would make them grow short, so I guess I better figure out a way to support them.
We do have wind here in Texas. They are growing in a strip between 2 houses and there is a fence across the strip. But the wind does get pretty rough in there.
Any other tips would be appreciated. Like, how close together should these things be and do you cut the stalk back after the blooms die or just let nature take it’s course at that point?
Thanks again.
Jim