by Ahmed Shehata
(Cairo,Egypt)
Special Rose ,Special Leafs
p.s..THANK YOU Jacki 🙂
Drought Smart Plants reply:
Hi Ahmed – this gorgeous thing is a hollyhock, the botanical name is Alcea rosea.
There are many different named varieties, and they’ve been grown for centuries in cottage gardens in Europe and Great Britain.
The older varieties are really tall in some cases reaching 9 feet – almost three meters in height. Most newer types are less than that. They excel as background plants along a fence or wall.
They have a couple of issues if exposed to too much rain, which you most likely don’t have to worry about, but if they start to show rust, an orange or tan coloured fungus that affects the foliage, remove the leaves that show this immediately and destroy them.
As a biennial, these plants are usually grown from seed in the summer, then planted in their final place in the fall, and they flower the following summer.
After that, they die off, and hopefully you’ll save some seed or have more young plants to replace them.
Jacki
