THE HOLLYHOCK. 



BY 



HERMAN SIMMERS, 



SEEDSMAN, TORONTO, ONT. 



OF late years, unfortunately, the holly- 

 hock has not been cultivated in our 

 gardens as much as it should be, 

 for it is one of the handsomest plants a per- 

 son could wish to have for a background ef- 

 fect, and towering as it does with majestic 

 effect over its small subjects, the annuals. 

 The hollyhock is almost as easily raised 

 from seed as the pansy, the pink and the car- 

 nation, etc., is ; but the difficulty lies chiefly 

 in carefully wintering them, which probably 

 has been the reason for their partial extinc- 

 tion of late years. Hollyhock seed may be 

 started in a cold frame any time during the 

 month of June, and as soon as the plants 

 have become sufficiently established to allow 

 of them being handled, transplanted to any 

 ordinary bed in rather a shady locality. Do 

 not defer sowing the seed later than this 

 month, as it is almost impossible for them to 

 get sufficiently established to withstand the 

 winter. My experience with them has been 

 that if sown later than June they will in- 

 variably be frozen through the winter, and 

 even sowing in June and subsequent trans- 

 planting will sometimes discourage the 

 amateur ; because the proper amount of cov- 

 ering required is somewhat puzzling. Too 

 much is sometimes as bad as too little, for 

 if we have a mild winter the plants, having 

 been grown pretty strong, will probably rot 

 with a heavy covering, and the same some- 

 times happens with the lighter covering. 

 Therefore I would suggest a medium 

 amount of covering, and to plant in a rather 

 secluded spot. If the plants have properly 

 wintered over, plant to their proper situation 

 about the middle of April, as during the 

 cooler weather of April they have a better 

 ch?nce to root, when they will be fully pre- 



Fig. 2597. Hoi LYHOCK. 



