The hollyhocks did wonderfully this year, though somewhat inconveniently placed in the front bed, where an 8 foot tall spike of fuschia flowers is somewhat…obnoxious. The tall spikes did their thing, went to seed, and now there’s so very many new hollyhocks coming up there, including (inexplicably) this white one:
This is where I’d like more botanical knowledge…is this a sport? A throwback? I’m curious about these things..
Segue…I’m looking into the Florida Master Gardener program. It requires a bit of classwork, a token fee, then a certain number of required volunteer hours per year.
Close friends/family blink at that part, I’m sure…you, VOLUNTEER? Well, yeah. I work from home, I have increasingly little patience with the outside world, and seem to be well on the path to full-blown misanthropy here, so yeah, I think some volunteer work in the gardening field could possibly save someone’s life down the road.
What?
on 
on Jun 17th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
But will you please post pictures of you volunteering?
One of my hollyhocks (that I got from Bennett’s) is blooming. Utter happiness. Sigh. I want a field of these things. Right next to the field of coreopsis.
on Jun 17th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
@Caitlin: Maybe.
So many colors, too. *bliss*
on Sep 9th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I took the Master Gardener course many years ago when I first moved to Florida from up north. I enjoyed the course and learned a lot, but not so much about flowers. They were more geared to comercial gardening, and lawn care, soil problems, and irigation. I hope you won’t be disapointed.