All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
As a child I loved making hollyhock dolls from those quintessentially quaint summer flowers growing in my Indiana backyard. All that was needed was a wooden toothpick, one hollyhock blossom, one bud with some color just peeking out, and some tiny fern-like leaves if you wanted your Lady Hollyhock to have arms.
After creating our hollyhock ladies, my sister and I would fashion villages in our sandbox in which they could live - at least for the rest of the afternoon…until they wilted in the summer sun…
Below is my collection of decorative publishers’ editions featuring hollyhocks…each of which bring back memories of those hollyhock summer days of childhood.
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Cassandra, Hollyhock ladies and villages in a sandbox. It sounds so lovely! I love your Hoosier Hollyhocks and the beautiful books you have shown as well. What a lovely idea to collect old books around one of your favourite flowers!
ReplyDeleteJeanne :)
Oh my, what beautiful childhood memories, Cassandra. I love love your little flower lady. Such great idea. Will definitely try this with my little monkeys this Summer! Thank you for the lovely idea.
ReplyDeleteHugs for a sweet super Summer day, Cassandra! xx
I love your memory of the hollyhock flower girl you made. I adore hollyhocks, grew them once here, but only were around for about 3-4 days, too hot I believe, thanks, Gina
ReplyDeleteHello Cassandra~~~Hollyhocks are my all time favorite cottage garden flowers. I still make the dolls with my granddaughters!! I just took pictures of my hollyhocks this morning to use in my post for tomorrow!!! I love your blog, and the music is lovely. It reminds me of Iona(we just atended their concert on Saturday).
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by.
Debbie@houseatthelake.