Gardening Questions: Diseased Hollyhock?

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britbrighton Ancram, NY October 20, 2008 5:52 PM	I planted hollyhocks this year from seed and noticed all of them have a raised spotty-rust on them. Actually, it almost looks like battery acid burned and bubbled on the leaves. I didn't notice earlier because they aren't going to bloom this first year and were tucked under a lot of other stuff. It has also gotten to my primrose (or evening primrose, I don't know what they are). Is this a fatal thing for them (should I rid my garden of them) and will it spread to all my garden flowers? Help! Brit
ecrane3 Dublin, CA (Zone 9a) October 20, 2008 8:05 PM	No, it's not fatal. Many hollyhocks are very susceptible to rust. The best way to minimize your chance of problems is to plant ones that are resistant to rust, or if you prefer to keep the ones you have, then clean up all the rusty leaves when they fall off and make sure you've got good air circulation around the plant, and you can also spray a fungicide next year (fungicides tend to work better as a preventative on things like this vs waiting until you have symptoms). As far as spreading, many plants aren't particularly susceptible to rust so it's not one of those things that's going to spread wildly through your garden, but it can spread to other susceptible plants.
britbrighton Ancram, NY October 20, 2008 8:50 PM	Thanks for the advice. It seemed to only be on the primrose as well. No other perennials seemed tainted. I have since cleared the area of the bad leaves and burned them. Hopefully next year I can prevent it!
SteveFtWorth Fort Worth, TX (Zone 7b) November 2, 2008 11:03 AM	I agree, ecrane's advice is excellent. One addition is that I spray fungicide in the early spring just as the new leaves are beginning to sprout, and any rose fungicide wil work well on hollyhocks. Once you get the fungicide into the plant when it's just coming out of dormancy or young/small, it is much easier to control. I used to have horrible rust problems with hollyhocks and this seems to prevent it.
flowerfantasy Washington, IN (Zone 6a) November 7, 2008 6:15 PM	Talking about Hollyhocks could somebody tell what I am doing wrong about growing them. My Grandmother use to have all kinds of them and I justed loved them and I have tried for 5 years now yo grow some and they always die on me.
ecrane3 Dublin, CA (Zone 9a) November 7, 2008 6:21 PM	When are they dying? Many hollyhocks are biennial, so if they bloom and then don't come back the following year that's perfectly normal (although they'll often reseed). Otherwise, can you tell us a little more about how you're growing them and what the symptoms are when they're dying? There are a lot of different things that could go wrong with plants so it's hard to say what's going on without some more information.
flowerfantasy Washington, IN (Zone 6a) November 7, 2008 7:42 PM	I bought them already started and put them out and watered a couple days a week. I never watered them except to soak the ground around them good and it was in the fall of the year that I bought them so had to keep them watered because of dry weather. They just up and croaked,leaves turned brown and from there the rest of the plant did the same thing. It was alomost like I wasn't watering enough but I thought maybe I was watering too much . Thats about the best I can describe to you.
ecrane3 Dublin, CA (Zone 9a) November 8, 2008 12:41 AM	They do die back every winter so it could have just been them going dormant. Did you pull them out when they turned brown? If you leave them alone they should come back the following year. Although maybe if they didn't have time to get established before cold weather came maybe the winter cold got them--once they're established they should make it through your winter, but newly planted things often suffer worse from the cold.
flowerfantasy Washington, IN (Zone 6a) November 8, 2008 2:05 AM	No they didn't die back for the winter, they died and never came back up. At the time I put them in the ground they should have had time to get established, Cause it was early fall when I put them in. I do have a very small one I planted this spring and I thought it was going to die and still may . I covered it today so hope it makes it through the winter.
WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland (United Kingdom) November 8, 2008 8:11 PM	These plants are very prone to mould and rust, best thing to do is collect all the fallen leaves and burn them or discard them well away from other plants, also in some soils, they get disease at the roots, they need a good rich soil as they are hungry feeders and added compost or other organic matter helps retain moisture and feeds these hungry plants, they are perennial plants really but most folks grow them as biennials as this helps prevent the rust/mould from attacking them, but many gardeners can have great plants for many years from the same sowing, they dont normally do well planted under other trees/shrubs ect as they need full sun, at the back of a border is good but not blanked from the sun at the growing part, the roots can take a bit of shade but for flowers to develop they prefere the tops in sun. hope all this helps you out if you want to try again this year, dont plant them in the same soil if you do try again just in-case there was some sort of root disease in the soil, it should no effect other plants of different types though. good luck. WeeNel.
flowerfantasy Washington, IN (Zone 6a) November 9, 2008 1:53 AM	Thanks for the info. Like I said I had one small this year and I covered him up so hopes he makes thru the winter, if he does then I will try putting out more. I am going to try to get enough to scatter them a little of eveywhere.

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