Many years ago now, on the first birthday I celebrated following the arrival of Offspringette, I had my first 'To Mummy' birthday present, and this clever little seven week-old baby bought me a book, Cottage Flowers by Marie Angel...
The book is not a history, but an evocation of the old traditional flowers of the cottage garden, with literary extracts and poems to accompany Marie Angel's illustrations, and I have treasured my copy from the day I was given it. Of course it presents an idyllic and maybe bygone age, but there seems nothing wrong with 'idyllic' and 'bygone' where gardening is concerned. When we bought this house the surveyor actually wrote 'idyllic location' on his report, and we have to concur.
Leaving behind one true cottage garden and trying to create another here has been a long old journey, with many years of fallow ground and carpets of easy-care geraniums, but now that we have the time and the inclination, and the new landscaping and at least a base for the greenhouse in place, and a good experimental season in the bag, I can look at Cottage Flowers again and think about having another go.
So following on from Aquilegias a few posts to come about some of my favourite flowers and ongoing attempts.
One of the plants I love is the Hollyhock, and here is Marie Angel's idyllic vision...
We have had moderate and very limited success with Hollyhocks in the past. They are tall and we are windswept, and the slugs adore them as the cordon bleu of vegetation, but undaunted I ordered a variety of seeds from seedaholic last summer and decided to get some started before the winter.
I am trying to keep a file of everything I sow or plant. Gertrude Jekyll adorns the cover (thank you Fran and Carol who sent the card from the recent exhibition) and every time my knees feel a bit creaky from digging I look at this picture. tell myself to stop whinging, and get back out there...
If I remember, I add the dates when seeds are sown and this file, along with a day-to-day gardening diary, have become a real joy to keep through the growing season, so I know for sure that the Hollyhocks...'Indian Spring Mix', 'Yellow,' and 'Nigra' were sown through late August.
Quite nicely, Offspringette was staying over and she and I sat up in the potting shed until dark, chatting and sowing and she wrote all the labels for me.
Then Bookhound let the dogs out and Nell jumped ALL over the trays.
There were shrieks and howls but we salvaged and started again.
My Hollyhockery is now safely out of reach of dog and slug behind the potting shed and so far so good...
Never in my life have I been so assiduous about watching and acting on the weather forecast. Though Hollyhocks are reasonably frost hardy, and these are in a sheltered spot, I am ever-vigilant with my 20 tog-rated duvets of horti-fleece. I bought yards of it off a room-width roll for £6, enough to carpet the whole of Devon, and after a few hilarious episodes of wind-assisted covering and much weighting with bricks, I have now cut it up and stitched together several four-thickness blankets which I tuck my plants under and wish them a snug night as I do.
One of the things I love about seedaholic.com is the information sheet that comes with the seeds and from which I have gleaned this...
Hollyhocks were depicted in Chinese Art as early as the 9th century, symbolising passing time, their route to the rest of the world seems to have followed the Silk Road and they are said to have been brought back with the Crusades. Known in medieval times as 'St Joseph's Staff ' Hollyhocks were once the plant of the wealthy, but their hardiness and proliferation of seeds soon made them an affordable favourite in cottage gardens. They have long been used medicinally for soothing and moisturising, as well as for minor pain relief and a diuretic whilst apparently the flowers are edible...mixed with Marigolds, Wild Thyme and young Hazel buds you will be able to see fairies...
I'll let you know.
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