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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