Alcea rosea Halo Blossom - Hollyhock

The hollyhock or Alcea Halo Blossom displays flowers all summer long, with large, white single corollas featuring superb dark maroon centres. Like all hollyhocks in the Halo series, it is known to be more long-lived than the more common varieties, and its foliage is more resistant to rust. In two years, each plant produces a bushy mound from which 5 to 10, tall flower-laden stems emerge proudly. This perennial plant, often grown as a biennial, produces bushy clumps in two years, from which several, heavy blooming stems emerge. A staple of cottage gardens and low-maintenance gardens, it can do without watering once established and can self-seed in the most unexpected places.

Hollyhock is also known by its Latin name of Althaea rosea or Alcea rosea. It also has many common names that have been adapted to the different accents of our regions. Of the family Malvaceae, it is native to Asia Minor and often naturalizes in cottage gardens, wastelands, mounds of earth. 'Halo Blossom' results from 15 years of work and is part of a series of hybrids bred and selected by the renowned seed company Thompson & Morgan, for their large, single, bicoloured flowers, their bushy habit, their ability to produce multiple flower stems and their resistance to rust.

It is an unbranched, upright plant that reaches 1.5 m to 2 m in height. It forms a branched rosette of stems covered with rough, rounded leaves, from which robust, fast-growing flower stems emerge. These spike-shaped inflorescences are covered with many large buds that bloom, from bottom to top, into large, 10 cm flowers. Their crinkled texture reflects the light beautifully. They are bi-coloured, pure white with dark maroon centres. Its flowering period is staggered from June to August.  Throughout this period, they will attract bees and butterflies to your garden. The flowers then give way to a large number of fruit, filled with seeds that spontaneously reseed in the most unexpected areas, which the plant seems to choose by itself: at the foot of walls, in poor and stony soil, in wall crevices, etc... 

Widespread in abandoned gardens or in wastelands in our countryside, the hollyhock is often grown at the back of beds or placed against a wall to protect it from strong winds. The fresh look and heavy blooming nature of the 'Halo Blossom' variety will allow you to make superb associations with pink, red or white, single or double flowered varieties. Sow next to annuals such as love-in-a-mist, knapweeds, poppies, Delphinium consolida. Gauras, with their light, butterfly-like blooms, will also contrast nicely with their large-flowered stems. Hollyhock is an edible plant: the flower buds can be eaten raw in salads and the young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.

Hollyhock is both an ornamental and medicinal plant. Its seeds are used to produce a siccative oil. Rich in mucilages, it is a great demulcent, emollient, laxative, aperitif and it also relieves dry coughs. Its properties are nevertheless attenuated compared to those of its cousin the common marshmallow (Althea officinalis).