Alcea rosea Halo Perfect Pink - Hollyhock

Alcea 'Halo Perfect Pink', a newcomer in the series of hollyhocks in the Halo series, brings together varieties in different shades of pink, but always bicoloured. Each produces 5 to 10 tall stems loaded with large single flowers ranging from pale-pink to almost red-purple, adorned with a halo and/or a darker heart. It is more perennial than usual varieties, and its foliage resists rust better. This plant is irreplaceable in country gardens or gardens without a gardener. It can do without watering once established and often self-seeds in unexpected places. 

Alcea rosea belongs to the Malvaceae family. It is native to Asia Minor and is often naturalised in wild gardens, fallow lands, and on mounds of earth. The result of several years of selection, 'Halo Perfect Pink' is part of a series of hybrids selected by the famous seed supplier Thompson & Morgan for their large single and bicoloured flowers, bushy habit, their ability to produce several flower stems on the same plant, and their rust resistance.

It is an upright plant, usually unbranched, that can reach 1.5 to 2m (5 to 7ft) in height. It forms a branched rosette of rounded and puckered leaves from which several robust flower stems emerge. It has a very rapid growth rate. The spike-like inflorescences are covered with numerous large buds that open in a staggered pattern from June to August. They bloom from the bottom to the top, into large single flowers with a diameter of 10cm (4in). Their satin texture creates beautiful plays of light. Throughout this period, they will attract bees and butterflies to your garden. The flowering gives way to numerous fruits filled with seeds that self-seed spontaneously in unexpected places: at the base of walls, in poor and rocky soils, and cracks in walls.

Very common in abandoned gardens or fallow land in our countryside, hollyhocks are often grown at the back of borders or against a wall that protects it from strong winds. This lovely selection 'Halo Perfect Pink' will create stunning combinations with purple, mauve, or white forms, both single and double. Plant or sow it with annuals such as nigella, bidens, centaurea, cosmos, poppies, and Delphinium consolida. Gaura, with their light flowering like a flight of butterflies, will also form a beautiful contrast with their stems loaded with large flowers. Hollyhock is an edible plant; the floral buds can be consumed raw in salads and the young leaves raw or cooked.

It is both ornamental and medicinal. Oil with drying properties is obtained from its seeds. Rich in mucilage, it has soothing, emollient, expectorant, laxative, and appetising properties, albeit attenuated compared to those of its cousin, Althea officinalis.