How To Grow Hollyhocks / RHS Gardening

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Growing guide

How to grow hollyhocks

Hollyhocks are easy to grow and their blooms come in a wide range of jewel colours, flowering from early summer to autumn. Their tall spires look good grown against walls and fences and are stalwarts of cottage gardens. Hollyhocks can be cut for bouquets and you can even add the petals to salads or crystallise for cake decorations.

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Quick facts

Easy to grow from seed
Likes well-drained soil in full sun
Flowers from summer to autumn
Stake stems in a windy spot
Replace plants every few years
Attracts butterflies and bees

All you need to know

Before you get started

Choosing a hollyhock

Hollyhocks are fully hardy and flower in the second year after sowing. They are short-lived

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

perennials and available in both single and double flowers. Before choosing which to go for, you might like consider the following:

Have you got a suitable location in the back of a sunny border or along a wall?
If your garden is windy, choose a sheltered spot and stake your plants as they begin to grow
Single flowers are best to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies
Hollyhocks are not long lived so always allow
A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.
seedlings to grow and keep the best plants and flower colours
Choose colours that will compliment your other border plants

Go to RHS Find a Plant and search for Alcea rosea to browse the photographs and plant descriptions, and find out where to buy them.

RHS guide to identifying your soil type

RHS guide to assessing your microclimate

Buying a hollyhock

Hollyhocks are available as seed, small

Seedlings or young plants grown singly in small modules, with the advantage that they can be transplanted with minimal root disturbance. Bedding plants and young veg plants are often sold as plug plants of various sizes, with smaller ones requiring more aftercare. They usually need to be potted up and grown on indoors until large enough to plant outside.

plug plants and young plants in containers up to 2 litres in size. Seed is widely available all year round in garden centres and online. There is a wide range of single and double flowered-forms, which are sold as mixtures or single colours. This an economical way to add these plants to your garden and the choice is more extensive than when purchasing plants. Plug plants or young plants are available in spring, although the choice may be limited. You can buy them in garden centres or online.

RHS how to choose healthy plants

RHS how to choose healthy plantsPlanting

Where to plant

Hollyhocks will grow in any garden soil, but prefer fertile, well-drained soil, in full sun, to produce the tallest flower spikes. Choose a position that is sheltered from strong winds, else they tend to blow over.

When to plant

Pot grown hollyhocks are best planted in spring or autumn, but can be planted at any time, spacing them 60cm (24in) apart. Plug plants, bought in garden centres or online, are best grown on in 10cm (4in) pots to establish a good root system, before planting out into the garden. If growing hollyhocks from seed sow indoors in mid- to late spring or directly in the position you want them to grow in May/June (See the Propagation section below for more details).

Top tip

Protect young plants from slugs, as they quickly eat the leaves.

Ongoing care

Watering

Water seedlings and young plants regularly, ensuring the top 15cm (6in) of soil is damp but not soggy, in the first few months. After that, plants in the garden should only need water in prolonged dry or hot spells. See our guide to watering

Top tip

To encourage a good root system keep young plants moist until established. This will result in bigger flower spikes more quickly in summer

Staking

If your garden is windy, place a bamboo cane or stout stake close to each stem and tie the stem to the support as it grows.

Feeding

Usually, plants growing in a good garden soil will not need additional feeding. Just improve the soil by adding a 10cm (4in) layer of well-rotted garden compost as a mulch to the soil after planting.

Deadheading

Cut the flower spikes to the ground when the flowers have faded. If you want to save the seed, wait until the seed cases are brown before collecting the seed and then cutting down the stalks.

End of season care

Hollyhocks are full hardy and don’t require any special treatment over winter. Remove all dead leaves and discard plants that have been badly effected by rust disease (see problems below).

Pruning and training

No pruning is required, just remove any leaves that are heavily infected with rust disease through the summer and cut down the flower spikes when the flowers have faded.

Propagating

Hollyhocks are easy to grow from seed and will readily self-seed in your garden. The new plants may not be exactly the same as the parent plants, if they are hybrids or cultivars. Self-seeded plants can be lifted while young and transplanted to a spot in your garden where you would like them to grow.

Seed: collecting and storing

Sow Hollyhock seeds indoors or in a greenhouse in spring (April/May). They germinate easily in temperatures of 16-21 0 C (61-700 F), so placing in a propagator encourages germination. If the seed pot is placed on a windowsill, germination is just a bit slower. See our guide to sowing seed in-doors Alternatively, sow seeds directly in the ground where you want them to grow in May/June. Hollyhock seed can also be sown in autumn and the young plants over-wintered in a cold frame or cold greenhouse, to flower the next year.

Problems

Young plants are suceptible to damage by slugs and caterpillers. Flea beetles can occassionally cause significant leaf damage. Hollyhocks are susceptible to rust disease and plants should be replaced after a few years, to prevent a build-up of disease. Collect all dead and diseased tissue at the end of the season to reduce the carry-over of rust spores to the next year.

While we think all this information will be helpful to you, we always recommend to read the instruction labels on your plants.

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Everything you need to know about choosing the right hollyhocks for you.

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Tag » When To Plant Holly Hocks

How To Grow Hollyhocks / RHS Gardening

Quick facts

All you need to know

Choosing a hollyhock

Buying a hollyhock

Where to plant

When to plant

Top tip

Watering

Top tip

Staking

Feeding

Deadheading

End of season care

Discover hollyhocks

Get involved

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