Monday, July 28, 2008

Hollyhock Dancing

We had a breezy afternoon and I happened to be out near the hollyhocks on my deck.
Their petals were fluttering and waving so attractively that I had to stop and take notice.
Don't you love it when plants have to flag you down just to get you to stop and "smell the roses".
Some do this in unattractive ways, overgrowing where they're supposed to be, turning weedy and gangly in the teenage years, etc. But some are just so quietly lovely you can't help but admire their understated prettiness.
Just like some people I can think of.. When you look at just the flower, they look so tropical (very much like a hibiscus!) don't they? I just love the translucency of the petals, you can see the water content in there, the petals are quite juicy.
Turns out they are edible and quite yummy in a non-spicy nasturtium kind of way. I was just looking up edible flowers, and there are quite a few on this list that we grow, but don't eat. Seems like a good project for the next year as everything flowers out, to see if any of them are tastier than others.
I'm introducing some new seeds to my garden this year, as all my previous hollyhocks have come from the seeds I got from my grandma more than ten years ago. They keep re-seeding themselves, but I'd like to try and grow the Black Watchman, which was grown by Thomas Jefferson just for variety's sake.

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