Alcea rosea Halo Mixed - Hollyhock

This blend of 'Halo Mixed' hollyhocks, also known as Alcea rosea Halo Mixed, is a beautiful novelty. It features tall plants in a variety of rich shades of colour, whose simple corollas are adorned with a large, contrasting halo, often in different shades of red. Unique and heavy blooming, these hardy ephemeral perennials are often grown as biennials and can be used to create beautiful decors at the back of beds, along walls, or to make beautiful floral arrangements. They tolerate ordinary, even poor and stony soils, as long as they are well-drained.

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 French regions. Of the family Malvaceae, it is native to Asia Minor and often naturalizes in cottage gardens, wastelands, mounds of earth. The 'Halo Mixed' selection groups several very original, bi-coloured varieties. This unbranched, upright plant can reach 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 big flowers with single corollas and whose veined texture reminds one of silk paper. They are bi-coloured, featuring a large, contrasting halo in the centre of their corolla. Its flowering period is staggered from June to August. Their crinkled texture reflects the light beautifully. They are bi-coloured, pure white with dark maroon centres. Throughout this whole 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 this selection will allow you to make superb associations with pink, red or white, single or double flowered varieties and to arrange wonderful bouquets for the house. They go well with the airy flowers of baby's breath, for example. 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).