Several blogs ago, I indicated that there would probably be more hollyhock photographs featured.  Since the flowers are "time sensitive" and I need to take the photographs while I can, today's blog is the vehicle for a few more shots.  With this year's early monsoonal activity in New Mexico, there may be additiional blooms later, but one has to strike while the iron is hot, as it were.

It seems to be the case that hollyhocks grow and thrive in poor soil, the same that many gardeners try desperately to amend year after year.  But don't be fooled.  They are quite choosy.  A bit like paintbrush, which is very site-specific, hollyhock seeds plant themselves where they will grow and thrive, despite where we think they should be growing.  Which made me wonder about a plant in the gravel at the corner of a house several blocks away.  It does not appear to have been planted.  And the leaves were different than any hollyhocks I had seen here.  They looked more like Boston ivy leaves, coming to a point at the end rather than round.  On further inspection, I had to think this was a hibiscus or Rose of Sharon rather than a hollyhock.  In the same family (Malvaceae - the Mallow family), they look much more tropical (as most hibiscus are) than hollyhocks, probably because the hundreds of species like the tropics.  But we are lucky to have some that grow in Albuquerque and Santa Fe (with additional warmth from southern exposure and warm walls).  The following two images are of the local Rose of Sharon, looking quite Hawaiian. 

    Hibiscus/Rose of Sharon 2 7/24

Hibiscus/Rose of Sharon 3 7/24
 

Compare those to the hollyhock images that follow.  It seems to me that new colors appear every year.  There must be some mixing and matching going on among the species and subspecies.

Hollyhocks 3 7/24
Hollyhocks 1 7/24
 

Even the white flowers shine.  There is a lot going on here.

Hollyhocks 6 7/24
Hollyhocks 2 7/24
 

The color of the hollyhock flowers below is magnificent, elevating themselves to royalty in the garden.

Hollyhocks 7 7/24
 

But they also serve the photographers working in black and white well.

Hollyhocks 4 7/24

My gratitude goes to Jean and Sam, Marilyn R., Tim, TTT, Victoria, Barbara F. R., Steve, Ingrid, and Marilyn G. for writing about last week's blog.

I hope the summer continues to present plentiful photographic opportunities in your lives.  

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image©