We’ve got a special one for one of our few remaining Flower Friday’s. Today, we’re going to dive into Hollyhock!
Though the “technical” name of this flower is “Alcea,” most everyone refers to it by the informal name of Hollyhock. We recently featured another flower in the Malvaceae family this year, Mallow, but Alcea is yet another genus within this family of flowers. There are around 80 known species of Hollyhock, ranging significantly in color, patterns, hardiness and even flower structure.
We’ve found Hollyhock surprisingly challenging to grow in the north, despite it being a generally tolerant perennial and hardy down to zone 2 or 3. We’ve had no success at getting them to perennialize, and they can even be finicky when grown as an annual. We’ve found we had to move sowing all the way to 12 weeks to last frost. This helps us guarantee flowers within our short season, despite seasonal differences, as they are a classic late season bloomer.
Hollyhock is thought to have originated in eastern Asia, with early references found in Japanese history. The flower eventually spread into the Middle East, where it was first discovered by the English during the time of the Crusades. In fact, its name may come from the first historic use of the flower, where it was used to treat leg injuries of horses ridden by the Crusaders. The etymology of Hollyhock is essentially “holy” (or holy land, where it was first found) and “hock” (or hind legs. It was typically mixed into a salve and applied to the horse injuries.
The flower also has a slang name, sometimes known as the “Outhouse Flower.” It was commonly used to both conspicuously indicate and beautify the outhouse. The flower is also known in fairy folklore, where the flower’s petals were used as a bed by these mythical creature. The flower was also immortalized in one of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, appropriately titled “Hollyhocks.”
Some species of Hollyhock (mostly alcea rosea) are considered edible and have historic use in culinary application. The young plant’s leaves can be used as a green, somewhat similar to spinach. The flowers are also edible, allowing them to be added to salads. Hollyhock flowers can also be added to bathwater, providing a luxurious treatment for dry and flaky skin.
Within herbalism, one of the most common uses was to craft a tea, which was used to aid sore throats, coughs and other gastrointestinal discomforts. The flowers were also frequently ground into poultices, since they can aid in skin ailments, wounds and other dermal irritations. Hollyhock has been quite influential in natural medicine, often being formed into extracts, soils, syrups or even capsules in modern times. Hollyhock was also used in traditional Chinese medicine as an early treatment for diabetes. Hollyhock shares a lot of the same bioactivity and health benefits found within the Malvaceae family of flowers.
Modern medicine has also taken notice of Hollyhock, noting that it is incredibly bioactive. Several species of Alcea are known to produce many helpful bioactive chemicals like alkaloids, saponins, tannins, polysaccharides and phenolic acids. Medical studies have confirmed early Chinese medicine uses for diabetes, proving it significantly increased uptake of glucose into the liver. Another study looked at the significant benefit of Hollyhock leaf compresses to treat breast engorgement, a problem that can affect as many as 40% of child bearing mothers during lactation. It is likely there are many other pharmaceutical uses for Hollyhock, but it has not be as extensively studied as say the Mallow flower.
We are still trying to get Hollyhock to perennialize for us and we’d love to make that happen. It’s likely we need to more deeply explore the various species. Even though we haven’t yet been successful, we do love having this flower growing as an annual. It makes for an excellent late season surprise, especially now that we’ve found the right timing for it.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We’ll be back with more food focused topics tomorrow as there’s a ton going on here at the Frosty Gardens!
