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If you are visually impaired partially or have a friend or family member who is partially sighted, the hollyhock can be the best friend in the garden! It is easy to grow. It will give generous sparklers three-fourth metres tall, studded with 30 to 40 single or double flowers that will remain fresh for almost a month or more. They can be grown in any season by seed, and take nine months to bloom after they are sown. For the disabled gardener: dark purple, dark pink and red hollyhocks in the garden help the partially visually impaired as they can watch its stunning dark hues. Hollyhocks planted in bright red and orange and purple containers offer a contrast with the background and can be seen better. They make gorgeous decorations for screens, walls, garden trellises etc. The seeds should be sown in seed-pans or in raised seed beds enriched with manure. Keep the seed beds moist and a month later the seedlings will be ready for transplanting. Gently replant them so that the roots are not harmed. Hollyhocks with their abundance of flowers will need a lot of space so grow them in rich, friable soil in the ground, to ensure the wind does not blow them over. Stake them as they grow to such an immense height. Use organic manure for your hollyhocks, to keep pests away. How to keep cut flowers last longer: hollyhocks contain a milky juice and if it hits the air after the stems are cut, it will begin to droop. You must sear the stem immediately after cutting with a match or even a candle. Or you could try a cigarette lighter. To make your hollyhock flower arrangement last longer, keep it in a cool spot in the evening. Keeping it on the floor before you sleep at night, could add an extra day to its life. Herbal doctors in the olden days loved the hollyhock as they used its leaves to make a medicine for reducing the swelling in the ankle (or the ‘hock’) of the horse. That is how the hollyhock got its name. This flower with its frilled petals painted with rainbow colours is also known as Althaea, (from Althaia, Greek) meaning to heal. It was even used in cough remedies. Floral historians think that the hollyhock had come to England from the Holy Land, brought back by the Crusaders, which might also explain its name. In the olden days grandmothers even made lovely hollyhock dolls for their grandchildren. Researchers found herbs in the fifty-thousand-year-old grave of a Neanderthal man, which included the remains of this flower. A medieval botanist named Albertus Magnus who compiled his own encyclopedia advised criminals to rub hollyhocks on the hands to protect from burns when they were punished with a terrible ‘ordeal by fire’ for their crimes. This flower’s fibrous stems can be used to make cloth, and they produce a very lovely blue dye. The organically grown hollyhock: hollyhocks can be grown organically by using the ancient, simple method of removing the infected leaves. The hollyhock rust can also be controlled by spraying the undersides of the leaves with a fine forceful water spray from the garden hose. Keeping your garden clean and healthy by clearing out debris is the best way to avoid pests.
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