Hollyhocks are beautiful flowers that can grow up to 9 feet tall and produce stunning, large blooms. After flowering, there are several things you can do with hollyhocks, depending on your preferences and goals:
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Let the seedpods dry up naturally: Once the seed pods are dry enough, they will pop open and allow the seeds to fall to the ground. Not all seeds will germinate, but enough will grow into new plants.
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Collect the hollyhock seeds: You can collect the seeds from the seedpods and store them in a cool, dry place until youre ready to plant them.
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Plant some new hollyhocks every year: You can plant new hollyhocks every year from the collected seeds.
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Cut back your hollyhocks: You can cut back the hollyhocks to promote more growth and flowers. You can do this throughout the growing season by pinching off spent blooms and dead leaves regularly. Toward the end of the growing season, when most of the blooms are finished, you can cut down the main stems of your hollyhocks.
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Let them go to seed and disperse themselves: You can simply let the hollyhocks go to seed and disperse themselves.
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Do nothing (for now): You can do nothing and let the hollyhocks be, especially if you have the space.
Its important to note that deadheading hollyhocks will prevent or minimize reseeding. If you want your hollyhocks to reseed themselves and have new plants naturally replace old ones, skip the deadheading. Also, its recommended not to spray any fungicides on your hollyhocks as they attract a lot of varieties of bees, butterflies, and other such pollinators that need the safety of a pesticide-free plant.
