Experimental gardening

[flick]

I planted a load of hollyhocks this year, and a couple of them were a lovely very dark purple. I saved seed from one of those, and have several pots of seedlings in the conservatory, but I wasn't sure if they'd come true so on the advice of the internet I've just taken some root cuttings from one of them, as well.

It's only after doing so that I noticed that all the sites saying that root cuttings work really well for hollyhocks are American, all the UK sites just say to grow them from seed.

I'm now wondering if American hollyhocks are actually a completely different plant: anyone know?

Comments

[birguslatro]

Hollyhocks grow from their stumps again (as long as they don't rot during the winter), but I think seeds are probably preferred because the plants look nicer than the ones grown from last year's stumps.

[flick]

This also worries me: in the UK, they're always referred to as biennials, but the US sites say they're short-lived perennials, which fits in more with saying you can chop them down and have them regrow.

[birguslatro]

Short-lived perennial seems a reasonable definition of a biennial to me!

Simple solution: When in doubt, try everything! Just remember to label which is which...

[birguslatro]

Or record where and when you sowed/planted them in your garden diary...