JULY PROBLEMS 103 



to be healthy, but we have found that by using only 

 young plants we can put them in almost any position. 

 Bone meal and wood ashes are both good as tonics for 

 the Hollyhocks, and there are a number of sprays recom- 

 mended for afflicted plants. Bordeaux mixture used 

 several times in spring is an old reliable remedy, and 

 Mr. C. H. Jenkins in his "Hardy Flower Book" recom- 

 mends a treatment the simplicity of which is certainly in 

 its favour: "Use a breakfast cup full of common salt to 

 three gallons of water. Employ an Abol syringe with 

 fine mistlike spray so that the solution does not reach 

 the roots of the plant." This should be done about 

 every two weeks in spring. 



Hollyhocks are among the most pictorial of plants, and 

 it is very difficult to find anything else to take their 

 place. I like best the single ones in pink and blackish 

 crimson, pale yellow and pure white, but the double ones 

 are very fine and opulent, and the lovely shades and 

 tints to be had very numerous. One I had from Eng- 

 land, called Prince of Orange, was a splendid orange- 

 copper colour, and there are now many named varieties. 

 I have a fine group of salmon-pink Hollyhocks against a 

 large tree of the Purple-leaved Plum, and another cherry- 

 coloured group has a fine background in a pink Dorothy 

 Perkins Rose which drapes the wall behind it. White 

 Hollyhocks are fine with Tiger Lilies, and there are many 

 other good associations for them. Althaea ficifolia is a 

 very pretty pale yellow-flowered single sort called the 



