Back amid the hollyhocks
Though shadier than it once was, Mom’s Tulsa garden has always been loaded with iris, daylilies, and hollyhocks—all cottage-garden favorites. I can grow the first two in Austin, but those elusive hollyhock towers—they always grab my attention.
The morning we were packing the car to go, I happened to glance out at the hollyhocks and was entranced by the glowing leaves and blossoms, backlit by the rising sun.
Rich color and stained-glass leaves. The bees were in heaven inside the crepe-paper flowers.
Quieter scenes beckon too. A window-framed mirror on the fence brightens a shady spot.
Nearby a little boy, lost in thought, perches at the edge of a stock-tank pond. Oh yes, these ponds run in the family.
An exuberant, purple-trimmed garden shed anchors the sunny side of the garden. It’s the main focal point as you enter the garden.
Is that a bluebird of happiness nestling amid the purple coneflowers? A happy combination indeed.
But it’s the hollyhocks I see in my mind’s eye when I think of Mom’s garden.
All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Now we can see where you got the gardening gene. Beautiful photos.
Your mom has a beautiful garden. I love the mirror on the fence. Your photos are so pretty, Pam!! Enjoy your 4th.
I can see you are “a chip off the old block” as my Granddad used to say. You certainly have similar gardening styles and the shed is so reminiscent of your old garden. HAppy 4th. As to the hollyhocks- why can’t we grow them why do ours get that horrible rust?
So pretty. Thanks for sharing a wonderful garden!
It is true. Your mother’s joy has been passed on to you.
Oh wow do I love your mother’s garden! Those pictures are just beautiful, Pam.
How lovely – so many aspects of her garden remind me of your garden. Even the purple in the garden shed. The Hollyhocks are stunning – I tried to grow them this year – no luck. But I understand your Hollyhock envy – I have it, too!
I too love hollyhocks. I’m so used to being envious of everything you can grow that I can’t, I forget there are things that work here that don’t work elsewhere. Holla! Happy 4th!
I agree….hollyhocks are lovely. I grew some in our DFW garden…but, they didn’t do too well.
They remind me mostly of New Mexico. They grow along dusty fence rows in some places there, with obviously no attention. Wonder what the secret is. Cooler nights, maybe?
Happy 4th.
I have a mixed relationship with hollyhocks. I love them, especially the yellow ones, which refuse to bloom yellow for me here. (probably mislabelling, but I like to think they’re out to get me). I have several coming up where I didn’t plant them, and they won’t come up where I deliberately plant them. Your mum’s are absolutely gorgeous, as someone else noted it’s easy to see where you got the gardening genes from.
Nice, cool to look at (though I bet it is steamy there).
What is great about hollyhocks, with the right context to use them in, is that they thrive (and reseed) on precipitation here in the arid Rio Grande Valley of NM. And in Abq and Las Cruces that means 8″ of rain / year, on average…
Tough & beautiful.
Your mom’s garden looks lovely, Pam … those hollyhocks would grab me too! I’m looking forward to seeing you in a few days!
Clearly gardening talent runs in your family. Nothing like a backlit hollyhock; I think it is the scale of the leaves that makes them so dramatic. You see wonderful stands of hollyhocks up near the lakes at the tip of Wisconsin’s thumb (if you can picture the state, you’ll know what I mean). Happy Fourth!
What a wonderful garden — I can see where you inherited your love for flowers. Oh hollyhocks, I gave up years ago due to the Japanese Beetles.
very pretty garden
I agree with other commenters – what a lovely garden! I remember hollyhocks in my hot Kansas City garden. They were tall and beautiful. In my Northwest garden they are very short and …still beautiful.
Thanks for all your comments, everyone, and I hope you had a happy 4th of July too! —Pam
Honestly I went through and looked at all the pictures before reading the words and seriously thought you had added a shed and new flowers to your garden. Yes, your mom and you have similar styles, and great taste in flowers and sheds. 🙂
I can tell where you get your gardening talent. Your mom’s garden is just delightful! I love her choices of flowers, and the accents she has in the garden. Those hollyhock photos are lovely. I was lucky enough to have a hollyhock blooming in my Houston garden this year, but in the end, rust got to it.
I love the light in the last photo–very cool. My mother was always nostalgic for the Ohio hollyhocks of her childhood and so she tried growing them in Southern California. They will survive here, but she never had the same kind of easy success the plants enjoyed where she grew up.
Lovely images Pam~I can see that you and your mother are both designers~gail
Lovely hollyhocks and I like the shed too. I grew hollyhocks last year. I love how tall they get. But I didn’t like how quickly they developed rust. Thankfully they were at the back of the garden, ha! See you soon!