Inside: Don’t overlook hollyhocks just because they’re old-fashioned flowers. Beauty and utility never go out of style. Just ask a bumble bee.
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A match made in your garden
Bumble bees and hollyhocks adore each other. Both are proud and jaunty and full of themselves, and both thrive in the hot August sunshine. As I walk to town on crumpled sidewalks lifted by the fulsome roots of enormous cottonwoods, I can’t help but notice hollyhocks lining picket fences, garages, and profuse vegetable patches. And each bloom, no matter how many grace the massive stems, entertains at least one fat bumble bee.
Just as clover lures honey bees and foxgloves draw hummingbirds, hollyhocks charm the bumble bees right out of their dens. Once the hollyhocks bloom, you can’t keep a bumble bee down. We all have our weaknesses!
5 nectaries yield lots of nectar
Each hollyhock flower has five nectaries. To get to the nectar, pollinators reach deep into the flower, nuzzling between the petals. Hidden out of sight, the nectaries exude pools of sweet liquid at the base of each sepal. While the bees are digging and sepal-snuggling, scads of large pollen grains stick to their bodies. The surface of the pollen (the exine) is prickly like a tumbleweed, designed to stick to the bodies of pollinators.
Sometimes labeled as “old-fashioned” flowers, hollyhocks originated in southwestern China. Records show they reached Europe as early as the 15th century and soon became popular in English gardens. They are tall plants, often towering 9 feet high with showy blooms along the entire length. Most range from white to pink, and red to purple, but many cultivars have emerged. One, described as black, is a deep, midnight purple.
Easy to grow, lots to admire
The plant is in the Malvaceae (mallow) family, along with okra, cotton, cacao, hibiscus, and many others. Hollyhocks do well in zones 4-8, but they frequently need support to keep them upright during wind and rain. The plants are drop-dead easy to grow, although often pestered by a variety of pests and pathogens.
Japanese beetles, especially, like to chow down on hollyhocks. In addition, slugs, spider mites, weevils, aphids, and earwigs fancy a taste, too. Then there’s a host of fungi and rusts that attack the leaves. To keep the fungi in check, it’s best not to crowd the plants. You want the leaves to dry quickly and thoroughly.
Great for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
As for color, bumble bees seem to prefer white or pink petals, while hummingbirds favor deep reds and purples. With cultivated varieties, pollinators favor the plants most resembling the original. They usually opt for singles (with one layer of petals) instead of doubles or triples. It’s a matter of convenience: Too many layers of petals can make the nectar hard to reach.
Make your bumble bees happy
If you like bumble bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, be sure to try hollyhocks. I love to see them this time of year when so few things are in bloom, and I love to see the bumble bees, too. It seems you can’t have one without the other.
Frequently asked questions
No, they are biennials that form foliage the first year and flowers the second year. However, if you start them late in the season—say August or September—that will count as the first year and they will bloom the following year.
Hollyhocks self-seed easily and prolifically, which may be what you’re seeing. Especially after the second year, they certainly seem like perennials.
Often, something else in bloom is competing for their attention. Honey bees usually go to the sweetest nectar, but they prefer extensive plantings so they can stay with the same flower type. This powerful foraging pattern is called floral fidelity. Because of it, small plantings are more likely to attract native bees than honey bees.
They usually attract large bees, like carpenters and Melissodes (longhorn bees). But this year, I found green metallic sweat bees, especially Agapostemon males, to be regular visitors.
No, they are even safe for humans and livestock to eat. However, some people may get skin irritation from the stems and leaves which exude a resinous substance. If you are prone to skin irritations, wash your hands and forearms after touching hollyhock plants.
Butterflies love hollyhocks for their quantities of sweet nectar. In addition, hollyhocks are a host plant for the caterpillars of painted lady butterflies, Vanessa cardui.
Good question. Flowers types and varieties that have been planted for many decades are sometimes called “old-fashioned” as if they were out of date. But bees don’t have such artificial standards. When modern bumble bees flock to old-fashioned hollyhocks, they’re not embarrassed by it.
Rusty
Honey Bee Suite
About Me
I backed my love of bee science with a bachelor’s degree in Agronomic Crops and a master’s in Environmental Studies. I write extensively about bees, including a current column in American Bee Journal and past columns in Two Million Blossoms and Bee Craft. I’ve endured multiple courses in melittology and made extensive identifications of North American bees for iNaturalist and other organizations. My master beekeeper certificate issued from U Montana. I’m also an English nerd. More here.
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Rusty, enjoy the variety of topics that you cover in your posts. Again, my question isn’t related to hollyhocks or bumble bees. Last year, after the end of the summer flow, I got bees to empty partially full frames by placing them above the inner cover. Doesn’t seem to be working when there’s floral sources. Aside from putting then out for general robbing, is there another way to get the honey into a specific hive? I’ve got messed up poorly drawn comb I’d like to retire. It’s full of sealed “honey” from feeding syrup. Thanks for your expertise and blog.
David,
Have you tried opening the cells with a cappings scratcher? Having the honey open and oozing out of the comb seems to increase the urgency of moving it. It’s worth a try, I think. Leave the frames in the same spot, above the inner cover, and see if that works.
Ok. Will give it a try. Thanks!
Thank you Rusty.
I am curious, has anyone noticed wild bees besides Bombus in hollyhocks? I stopped at an orchard that had maybe half a mile of hollyhocks planted outside their deer fence by Rock Island, WA and it was amazing how many Bombus nevadensis (Nevada Bumble bee) queens were nectaring there. They seemed to be ignoring the pollen though they were covered in it.
I was not as lucky at my house. I bought some dark maroon-black hollyhocks to fill in while some new native flowers grow up. They are big round balls of leaves, and some flower stems are there – but so far I have not spotted any bees in the flowers. It is so disappointing that I chose the wrong cultivar. (Weirdly, hollyhocks are not prone to bee favorite blues or yellow tones, but those Bombus did not care a whit.)
I also was experimenting because I could not get globemallow in pots, and was worried about what my local Diadasia diminuta would forage on. They will go to Iliamna longisepala and luckily one lone globemallow did come up during their season. The hollyhocks missed them because they were not blooming yet, so I am still wondering if Diadasia diminuta will be interested in hollyhocks at all. They are biennials, so that did not work.
Lisa,
So far, besides lots of Bombus, I have seen Melissodes, Agapostemon (which surprised me because they usually go to Asteraceae plants), and Ceratina. There may have been more, but that’s what I could identify without collecting.
Why did my honey separate in the jars!
Marianne,
Sometimes honey separates when it crystallizes. The heavy crystals drop to the bottom and the watery liquid remains on top. Honey will often ferment after this occurs, so you may want to freeze or refrigerate it for cooking. The other thing you can do is heat the jar of honey in a pan of warm water until the crystals dissolve, stir it well, and then use it soon because it will re-crystallize quickly. Don’t let the honey get too hot; about 110 degrees F is about right.
Honey with a slightly high water content seems to separate more readily than “drier” honey, although that’s not always the case.