Is the leaf damage you're seeing making the leaves look lacy? If so, you have Japanese beetles. You can easily find pictures of the beetles on the web, they are large and have a green metallic look.

Go out early in the morning and early in the evening and sweep any you find into a bucket of soapy water (use hand dishwasing liquid) and they'll drown. I do that every day.

As far as rust goes, I normally remove the most badly damaged leaves to help stop the spread. There are some naturall remedies to try (which I always forget to put down, lol). I believe corn gluten is supposed to help. Be sure to clean up all leaf litter in the fall tohelp prevent overwintering of the spores.

By this time of year, my hollyhocks are pretty much spent, so I'll be cutting them to the ground on the weekend.

Thanks a bunch... I actually purchased a 10-10-10 fertilizer that helps kill most beetles and insects that will eat at the plant... hopefully that will help. It also helps the root system out. As far as the rust on hollyhocks and what I have read it seems that you NEVER EVER water the leaves and I have not been doing that what-so-ever. I also water early in the day so it has time to dry and soak into the ground before night. In a week or two ill have to post a picture! Thanks for the help.

I think of hollyhocks as biennials or short lived perennials. There might be some varieties that tend to last longer but for the most part I think 2-5 years is normal.

Some I started from seed took 3 years to bloom, so don't give up in it even if you don't get flowers next year. Sounds like you will have a beautiful show.

To have them flowering every year, I'd expect to have to plant them every year or allow them to reseed.

Troves, I would always cut the spent blooms off by my dad, this time around I am going to let nature do all the work and let them re-seed. Thanks for the input.

Here is a picture of how my Hollyhocks are doing... Let me tell you I started these from SEED at the end of May so somewhat late yet they are already a good 5-6 inches tall. I think I may have found the perfect place as they are protected by a protruding wall there. :)

I had two plants given to me last fall. They stayed alive, inspite of transplanting the taproot. The original plants did not return but right now I have several 4 foot tall plants, all from reseeding, and all blooming profusely. They're zebra hollyhocks and I just LOVE the blooms. The foliage is much fuller and denser than I remember but I love these! If yours flower this year I'd say FOR SURE let them reseed. They kept in the same spot for the most part and any wanderers were easy enough to just pull up

Just to clarify, there are two different plants being talked about here, though they are both in the same family, Malvaceae so that the flowers have some resemblence, but the plants are quite different.

Adam's plant is a biennial that might come back a third season, Alcea. They can grow to 6 or 8' tall and have flowers that are in the range of 3-4" wide.

David's plants, Zebra hollyhocks are Malva sylvestris Zebrina, a much shorter (3-4') perennial and have smaller flowers (2").

Both plants will reseed. While I understand that learning scientific names can be a bit intimidating, it does help in saving some confusion in cases like this where a common name is used for more than one plant, an unfortunately common occurance.

nhbabs, Thanks for the input, I know the type I have is a biennial, but I am hoping that if I let nature take it's course and leave it to re-seed I may get lucky and it will come back each year. We'll see! Is there anything I can do to have better results in having that happen??

A systemic rose spray that is listed for rust should prevent rust and also leaf miners on the hollyhocks, do it in spring before you see any symptoms because afterward is too late.

Sandy

Adam, mine reseed without any help from me as long as I leave them for a little while after they have bloomed to let the seeds ripen. I don't save the seeds, just let some of them drop for next year's flowers. They are an old-fashioned single that's a deep red-marroon and are in an area that isn't mulched. I do have problems with rust most years, and those years I just rip them out, though this year they are perfectly clean and have been really nice. The seeds must be long-lived since I have ripped out the small plants due to rust for the last 4 years, but a few came up each year anyway despite no flowers for several years.

Thanks for the info Sandy. I wish that there were a nonchemical method of preventing rust since I'm not willing to do annual applications of a systematic.

nhbabs, for organic controls try Neem oil. Safer makes a sulfer based fungacide that is a better option than other chemicals. And some people say that corm meal mixed with water and used as a spray prevents hollyhock rust.