Hollyhocks and me are no longer an item. It's over. In the end they weren't even trying. I made allowances but they were late for everything important (e.g. Summer) and when they did turn up they grew at odd angles as though they had been having pre-drinks before the party. The last straw was the pox. I'm pretty tolerant but we all know that virulent rust is the sign of a misspent youth so they've been given their marching orders. It was hard, the end of a dream, and I may need therapy to help me let go. Here are some photos of the start of the affair in Banon, Provence, June 2012.
Alas!
ReplyDeleteI know - I am feeling quite tragic about it all.
DeleteI've never been able to grow hollyhocks.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord! I've just spotted Tall Chat in Banon.
I expect Tall Chat was part of a Twinning Committee.
DeleteMine are lying prostrate on the grass and I am leaving them there. If I tie them up the next time I look they have escaped and are lying down again. Big disappointment though I did get one Niger which is gorgeous. I am leaving them in the naughty corner where I threw them in despair last year, so they will have another chance to impress. Apparently I was being too nice to them, they thrive on neglect.
ReplyDeleteOur local garage has a spectacular display of apricot Hollyhocks every year in the corner of the yard where there is no soil at all. It is outrageously unfair.
Deletemine are similarly delinquent. i was blaming the giant coreopsis as a bad influence, but perhaps it was the other way around. last year, there was pestilence of some variety [ants, i think] but they've no excuse this year.
ReplyDelete[i always feel odd just popping up with a comment when i've been lurking.....but i also feel odd, and a bit guilty, just lurking. so, hello!]
It is becoming clear that Hollyhocks are Nature's bad boys - loitering around behind the shed or other unsavoury places, wholly averse to responsible behaviour.
Delete[Welcome! Please join us at the garden table - you can have the wicker chair that I bought yesterday from a junk shop, it is incredibly comfortable.]
The fact that the hollyhocks look so healthy and well-behaved in your lovely photos suggests to me that they like it hot and dry which is probably the issue this year as it's been cool and wet much of the time...
ReplyDeleteYes - I think that I might have had better success with a seaweed border this year.
DeleteHollyhocks certainly don't like my suburban garden, which bakes in summer but is gloomy and damp in autumn/winter when the sun fails to rise above surrounding roofs. I need to live somewhere like the picture above!
ReplyDeleteLet's run away together to Banon! We could frolic amongst the hollyhocks and live on foraged food from the olive trees and vineyard.
DeleteReady when you are !
DeleteThere are hollyhocks growing in a neglected garden near me. They come up tall and straight every year - perhaps the answer is to completely ignore them.
ReplyDeleteI think Non Interventionist gardening is the next big thing - we are ahead of the game here.
DeleteI've never had success with Hollyhocks... Especially since Stewart kindly dug out "those big weeds" that were growing in the border!
ReplyDeleteThat Stewart! He looks like The Perfect Husband in all the photos but it is clear that there are small flaws beneath the surface.
ReplyDelete