Hollyhocks looked awful, so removed them, will use stems for next year's mulch

They were full of rust and mostly done flowering, and looked awful, so for neighbourhood concerns removed them.  Removed the seed pods and kept the stalks/stems to use for next year's mulch.

Mulch: Wins from last year! Overwintered chopped leaves in basement garbage bag; overwintered hollyhock and zinnia

The garbage bag of chopped leaves that I put in the basement last fall to use this spring is great!!  Looks like it has started to mold (but no bad smell)!  Used half of it to mulch various things; saving the rest to mulch the other things that will be transplanted soon.

And, the hollyhock stems and zinnias that I had overwintered in the yard for the birds -- were mostly a fail birdwise (saw birds eating their seeds only a couple of times) -- but are coming in very handy as a woody mulch for established plants.

I'm also using cut grass from the yard, letting it dry out before applying it as a mulch.

Hollyhock flower(seed) branches placed into yard for birds

Took the long (very long!) hollyhock flower stems off the front plants and put them into the yard in three spots along the west bed, supported by tomato cages (and most cut in half so that they stay upright).  The house sparrows had been eating them when they were out front, so hopefully someone will enjoy them in the yard as well.

So, if holly hocks spring up in the yard next year, this is why!

House sparrows eating hollyhock seeds!

Neat!  There are certainly hundreds if not thousands of seeds on the hollyhocks in front of the house.  Saw them from the kitchen window, right there eating seeds.  Fun!

Hollyhocks started blooming ~a week ago

They're gorgeous!  I started them last year, from seed collected the previous year from the neighbour's plant.

So, whatever rusty disease they had last fall doesn't seem to have affected them, and no sign yet of the rust this year.

Hollyhocks -- year 1 update

Wow, they seemed very happy out front, lots of leaves.  However, they're infested with what I think must be rust.  Anyway, trimmed them back to stubs today for the winter, will see if they flower next year.

The ones I had put in the yard along the north wall I pulled a few weeks ago due to the yard reno -- they were much smaller due to all the shade with the compost bin etc.

Hollyhock left-overs x2 transplanted against north wall

One behind the compost bin, one a few feet east of that.  Google says they need good air flow which these won't have but what the heck, will give it a try.

Transplanted hollyhocks, forget-me-nots, and poppies (Oriental and Flanders' Fields)

Hollyhocks:  x5, front bed against house wall.  They're quite small because there were raised mostly outside.  I'm sure if they had stayed inside under lights they'd be a lot further along.  But, they look healthy even though small.

Forget-me-nots:  x5 front bed, and x2 in yard next to compost bin.  Were definitely getting root-bound.  Hopefully will be happier to be in the ground.

Poppies:  Front-fence bed, mini patch of Oriental x ~8 or so, and one mini patch of Flanders' Fields x ~8 or so, and east-house-wall bed mini patch there too, can't remember which kind.  But it's really easy to tell because FF has deeply lobed leaves whereas Oriental's are pretty smooth-edged.  Winter sowing worked fairly well; they're ~2" high and look like they should do ok.  Trimmed the bleeding heart back a ton to open up the bed.

Lights added to dog crate downstairs for the hardening-off plants

Strung up two of the 20 year old lights, in the dog crate in the living room.  This way when the plants being hardened off are inside because it's too cold or whatever, they can still get some light.

Currently under these lights / starting the hardening off cycle are:

- some leftover zinnias

- all hollyhocks

- one tomato (medium)

Hollyhocks being hardened off because neighbour's have been growing for a while

Since the neighbour's hollyhocks emerged a while ago, I'm hoping that means they're somewhat cold hardy so I'm going to start hardening them off today, to free up room under the lights.

Moved a few teeny zinnia, holly, and tomato outside during day, to come in at night / when cold

 (Because hardly any room left under the lights.)

They're just in normal pots, no cover.

WS'd germinated tomato, ground cherry, and hollyhock seeds

 As an experiment, after germinating in paper towels I moved 1 tomato (Rainbow Blend), 2 ground cherries, and 1 hollyhock seed into their own individual WS containers and put them outside for 24/7 except I will bring them in for really cold temps.

Hollyhock round 2 started in PT

 Due to very low germination in round 1 (3 of 15 so far, and 1 of those seems to have died in the pot), started round 2 of hollyhocks.

Hollyhocks: 2 (out of 15) have sprouted so far, put into potting mix (inside)

Beets, hollyhock, ageratum, and other flower started in paper towels

 - Hmm, two bags of collected seeds both from 2019, one called "button flower" (which I know now is ageratum), the other called "purple-headed flower, nice" -- I can't remember what the latter could be, and I wonder if it's also the ageratum, but the seeds look different.  So, started both, and we shall see.

- Hollyhock collected last year from neighbour (my first time trying hollyhock)

- Beets (x~60) collected from last year's biennial beets that went to seed

Reference: Hollyhock seed saving

https://dengarden.com/gardening/Quick-Guide-to-Collecting-Storing-Hollyhock-Seeds

I'd like to try these next year in the front bed.  They're gorgeous in the bed next door; I'd like to collect some seeds from those ones (they're pink).  So nice and meadowy.