Hollyhock
Althoea rosea.
THE eclipse of a grand garden flower must be reckoned as a domestic calamity, and this we have had to endure in the cultivation of the hollyhock. But an eclipse is only a temporary obscuration; if suns and moons recover their wonted brightness, we may reasonably hope to see the hollyhock once more in its proper splendour, the noblest occupant of the country garden. Remembering the late Cecil Lawson's magnificent picture, "The Minister's Garden," we feel that the restoration of the hollyhock must be attempted, in the interests of art no less than to maintain the high delights of the summer garden, and the pleasant memories it treasures for reflective observers. The hollyhock was introduced from China in sufficient time for the enjoyment of our grand old gardeners, for Parkinson figures the double hollyhock under the name of Malva rosea multiplex, a name it might still bear with propriety, for it is a true mallow, and may be grown for fibre or fodder with possible advantage. As a garden flower it attained its highest fame in the first half of the present century, Lord Hawke, as an amateur, and Mr. Chater, of Saffron Walden, as a trade cultivator, being its best representatives. As an exhibition flower it ranked equal with the dahlia, and good collections comprised flowers of all colours, the size, the form, and the fashion thereof being truly sumptuous. But the eclipse came. It is but a paltry shadow that for a season blots the sun from the heavens. It was a paltry fungus, finding a home first on the common mallow of the fields, and thence spreading to the garden, that caused the eclipse of the hollyhock. Beyond all doubt the railways were the proximate cause of the mischief, for on railway banks the mallows run riot, and form the breeding grounds for the pest that for a time excluded the hollyhock from our autumnal exhibitions. In view of the facts, we can with emphasis repeat the advice of Thomas Tusser, who, occasionally, in his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," says "destroy mallow." The grower of the hollyhock should allow no wild mallows to come near his garden. It is possible the cultivators contributed in some degree to the eclipse. The new varieties were in great demand, at prices decidedly remunerative, and it was the custom to propagate them in a high temperature, and often, with a view to increase the plants rapidly, the more expensive named kinds were grafted on roots of unnamed seedlings; and in order to promote a perfect junction of the graft with the stock, it was necessary to keep them for a time in a steaming heat, which caused a quick growth and a corresponding debility of constitution. The practice has been abandoned, because the demand for named hollyhocks has declined, and now the plants are generally raised from seed, and as such are biennials, flowering in the second year, but becoming perennials, if needful, at the discretion of the cultivator. It is a fortunate circumstance that seedling hollyhocks do not greatly vary from the form and colour of the parent flowers. It follows that, when the seed is obtained from plants carefully selected for their fine qualities, a good bloom may be expected by adopting the simplest and the cheapest method of cultivation. The seeds may be sown at any time from March to August; but early sowing is advisable, as the plants can be put out in time to make a free growth the first season, to prepare them for a strong bloom in the season following.
As a considerable number of the finest named sorts, that were things of renown fifty years ago, are still in cultivation, the propagation by divisions and cuttings is still a matter of some importance. The time for this business is in the decline of the summer, or early in the autumn. It is an easy matter to detach from the base a short shoot or portion of the stool, and these being potted, and kept through the winter in a frame, will grow freely in the spring, and should be planted out as soon as the weather permits in April or May--the earlier the better, provided there is no particular danger of injury from frost. In places much exposed the planting must be later than in warm, sheltered situations.
The requisites for the production of a fine bloom of hollyhocks are a deep, rich, moist soil; perfect drainage, to prevent injury by winter damp; and full exposure to air and light. In places much overshadowed by trees, or where much hemmed in by walls and fences, hollyhocks do not prosper. They love sunshine and fresh air; they love good living; and in a hot, dry season may with great advantage be liberally supplied with water.
On the question of single versus double hollyhocks there is not much to be said, because what is preferred to-day may be rejected to-morrow. Having through a course of years grown collections of the finest named hollyhocks, our own taste inclines to the double flowers, the beauty of which might tempt one to speak of them as sublime. But few, very few, of the lovers of flowers in the present day have any proper idea of what a hollyhock of the florist's type is like; in the days when they were freely and finely exhibited they filled with surprise the novitiates, and we hope to see them do so again, for, as we have said above, between eclipse and annihilation there is a difference. Disease has not destroyed the potato, and this, our grandest of border-flowers, gives many welcome signs of its intention to live through the trial.