Question about Hollyhocks

Some years ago (before they were popular - maybe 50) I had the most beautiful hanging geranium basket. Lush and full but it never bloomed. A local gardener suspected I had done so much fertilizing that all the strength went into the leaves without setting buds. Just a possibility.

You may be fertilizing with too much nitrogen - it will inhibit flowering. Phosphorus is the nutrient that promotes more flowering. Miracle-Gro has a Bloom Booster that you mix with water.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will try the Miracle-gro and see if that works. The strange thing is that this year I did not feed the Red Lips at all, just water and still no flowers. It is planted right behind my butterfly bush and that is growing beautifully (the smaller ones from Cottage Farms). One of the Hollyhocks is in front of a trellis and I have not fed that one anything. Very perplexing.

Ooh--love, don't be too quick to rip them out! My experience with Cottage Farms is, despite what Philip promises, the plants generally don't flower the first year. Give them their second year and chances are they'll do quite a bit better. By the third year, you'll likely have a glorious display of blooms. They need time to settle in. Your patience will pay off, I promise!

Hollyhocks are a biannual plant. Biennial plants simply don't produce flowers until their second year. Some other common flowering biennials are forget-me-nots, foxgloves.

Let them grow for another year. Hopefully, they will have blooms.

Miracle Gro is high in nitrogen-- look at the 3 numbers on the bag/box. The first number listed is nitrogen-- this encourages foliage or green leaves, the 2nd is for phosphorus and encourages flower formation and buds to form and finally the 3rd number is for potassium which is for general plant growth.

Try and find fertilizers with low nitrogen and higher phosphorus levels. Any product that has a nitrogen level of 11 or higher is too much if you are trying to encourage blooms.

Miracle Gro Water Soluble All Purpose Plant Food from their website:

Fertilizer Analysis of above product:

• 24-8-16 Too high in nitrogen!!!

• Link to Miracle Gro Product that has as its numbers 10-10 10-- this looks to be the best of the bunch of products Miracle Gro offers.

IMO, I wouldn't buy Miracle Gro but would buy Espoma Plant Tone-- its organic and has all a plant needs and its slow release vs. quick release the way many Miracle Gro products work.

Yes, as Carmie said, Hollyhocks are a bi-annual plant. Blooming in their second year and most die after blooming, but will reseed themselves. I love the plants and so do bees.

Thank you everyone for all your suggestions. OK, I will give them a chance and not rip them out, but I really wanted something that blooms every year and did not realize they bloom every other year. Do I cut the leaves down before the winter? And from what I gather, they only bloom one year am I correct and reseed so that I should get more flowers.

On 9/1/2014 loveour4leggedfriends said:

Thank you everyone for all your suggestions. OK, I will give them a chance and not rip them out, but I really wanted something that blooms every year and did not realize they bloom every other year. Do I cut the leaves down before the winter? And from what I gather, they only bloom one year am I correct and reseed so that I should get more flowers.

Yes, once the leaves and stems turn brown you can cut the stalks down for the winter. Once the ground freezes you can use some mulch over the centers of the hollyhocks (to keep their crowns warm over the winter months(.