Hollyhock seeds (Alcea rosea)

Alcea rosea

It is also called hollyhock, sea hollyhock, or tree mallow: the hollyhock is a familiar sight in country gardens, where it readily climbs along walls and fences. Rural tradition often planted it near exterior doors, so much so that in some regions it has remained the emblematic flower of old-fashioned farm gardens.

Characteristics:

• Vertical silhouette: its tall, hairy stems, which can exceed 2 meters, make it an ideal plant for dressing up an unattractive wall or fence.
• Generous flowering: its large single or double flowers, 5 to 10 cm across, appear successively from June to September in a variety of colors.
• Hardy: it withstands winter without difficulty in most regions.

Sowing advice:

• Exposure: full sun to partial shade, ideally planted against a wall that protects it from the wind and reflects heat back to it.
• Soil: ordinary, deep, and well-drained. It tolerates chalky and poor soils, but dislikes stagnant moisture in winter, which can cause its crown to rot.
• Method: the seeds require cold stratification to germinate well — see our guide to cold stratification. Then sow them directly in the ground in spring, as their long taproot does not tolerate transplanting well. Pre-soaking is not necessary.

Care advice:

• Water regularly during dry periods, without overwatering to prevent the soil from becoming waterlogged.
• Light staking may be useful for the tallest stems, which are exposed to the wind.
• Cut back the stems after flowering, or leave a few to set seed for natural reseeding.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its flowers, rich in nectar and pollen, attract abundant numbers of bees and bumblebees throughout the summer.
• Like other mallows, it is a host plant for certain butterfly caterpillars, especially painted ladies, which come to lay their eggs and feed on it. See our article on flowers in the vegetable garden.

Uses:

• Hollyhock flowers are edible, enjoyed raw in salads or dried to flavor an infusion. See our ideas for edible flowers.

Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave the small, millstone-shaped brown capsules to dry on the stem, then shell them by hand: each one contains numerous flat seeds arranged in a circle. Hollyhocks also readily reseed themselves from one season to the next. See how to store your seeds from one year to the next.

Our Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, test them for germination rates, and carefully sort and package them without any chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.

Add a touch of country charm to your garden with these hollyhock seeds, available now.