TINY TUESDAY - BLACK HOLLYHOCK

I wonder if other people get as excited as we do when a new flower appears in the garden?  Mr. HCB could hardly contain his excitement as he said that he had just seen the first flower on a black hollyhock in the garden.  He said it wasn’t very big, so I immediately thought that it would be a good candidate for Tiny Tuesday.  He doesn’t know where this one came from, but definitely grew it from seed, so was very pleased to see it flowering today.

The flower isn’t quite open - see the extra - but I rather liked this bud, which I believe may be called “Black Knight” and was out as soon as I was dressed to photograph it.  There does appear to be some sort of fungal disease on the leaves, which I think is rust, but reading up on it, the blurb says it rarely threatens the life of the plant and is more of an annoyance.

It said on the website I looked at that the plants attract butterflies and hummingbirds, so I got very excited myself because my certain Blip friends know how much I love hummingbirds, but of course, it was an American website and I don’t think they will be flying over here any time soon!

I think Mr. HCB will be watching these beautiful hollyhocks very carefully and harvesting the seeds, so that he can grow more next year.  We do have more hollyhocks, white, yellow and pink, some of which have reached the dizzy heights of 7 feet, but sadly because of the lack of rain, our sunflowers have not done very well at all.  

We still haven’t had the promised rain, although Mr. HCB and his cricketing buddy, Keith and Keith’s son, Graham, who is over from America, have decided not to go to Cheltenham today as rain is promised by 10 a.m. so I need to go to the chemist to get some cream for my very sore and itchy bites that I got on Sunday whilst at the concert. Despite “plastering” myself with insect repellent, the little varmints found their way onto my already sore knees and had a good go at them - it is really hard not to scratch but I know I will only make them worse if I do.

“Flowers have an expression of countenance 
     as much as men and animals. 
Some seem to smile; 
     some have a sad expression; 
          some are pensive and diffident; 
               others again are plain, honest and upright, 
                    like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock.”
Henry Ward Beecher
(Liberal US Congregational Minister, 1813-1887)