Topic: hollyhock seeds

[antipodes]

I am hopeless with flowers but I would like to get a few growing on the lottie just for decoration's sake. At my block of flats, there are pink hollyhocks growing, and they now have seed pods on them. Can I just pinch these seedpods and sow the seeds?
Do hollyhocks get sown now or in spring? I have a few places where I was thinking of putting them, like next to the water barrels to hide them a bit, next to the shed door and next to the compost bin (where there is already a lovely mallow plant growing wild. oh oh, i found a colony of fire bugs there this week and looked it up - apparently they feed off the mallow seeds! and are harmless so I'll leave them to it. )
I searched but didn't find anything about hollyhocks. Can anyone advise me? To tell you the extent of my hopelessness, i grew my sunflowers in teh middle of the path and now can't get past them because they are 7 feet tall, I failed to grow marguerites and zinnias and the best flowers on my lot are...wild pansies! ha ha but I now I must be able to improve things!!!

[Eristic]

Make sure that the seed bud has dried off and turned brown before removing it from the plant. Collect these into a paper bag for cleaning later.

Seeds can be sown now where they are to flower, simply scatter, rake in and don't weed too carefully. Seed could also be sown now in pots or left till spring. As each seedpod should produce more than a full packet of seeds I would suggest all three methods.

[antipodes]

cripes  :o
does one seed produce one flower stem?? I can't imagine having them in a pot as they get so tall! They grow in many places here in France especially on the west coast. I read that some of you grow black ones? Are they really black?? that sounds very exotic!!
I will try sowing them now, since the places I will put them won't be turned over for veg they should be safe.

[Eristic]

Sorry. Should have made it clearer. Start the seeds off in pots to be transplanted later as you would with tomatos or suchlike.

Yes. One seed equals one plant which may have more than one flower spike in later years. The black flowers are not jet black, more of an extremely dark red but are pretty enough and look black in good light.

[antipodes]

oh right!!! Oops just stuck a load into the ground!!!  ::)
ha ha might get a surprise come spring! OK, I will get a few more seeds then and try them in a pot. Will they be alright on a balcony? OR outside? Or do I need to start them in the house????

[calendula]

the black ones are beautiful and really are nearly black - I used to have a few growing near our garden gate and every year someone would pinch them when in flower  >:( but testament to their beauty

I've just potted out some for next year 'blackcurrant whirl'

[saddad]

They may blow over a lot... if you have them in a pot...
 :-\