Hollyhock - Fiesta Time

DESCRIPTION: Beautiful, double cerise flowers with rose pink ruffled edges; plant in full sun for better growth. The shorter height of 'Fiesta Time' makes it more suitable to courtyard gardens and containers than its taller cousins.

BOTANICAL NAME: Alcea rosea 'Fiesta Time'
AVERAGE MATURE HEIGHT: 90 cm
AVERAGE MATURE SPREAD: 45 cm
SUN EXPOSURE: Full Sun
FLOWER COLOUR: Cherry red with pale pink edging
FLOWERING TIME: Summer
FOLIAGE COLOUR: Light green
COLD HARDINESS: Zone 3 ( Should survive up to -39.9° Celsius )
WATER NEEDS: Average
OTHER FEATURES: Attracts Birds, Butterflies & Hummingbirds, Cut Flowers, Deer Resistant, Rabbit Resistant

Ornamental Features

Fiesta Time Hollyhock features bold spikes of crimson round flowers with pale pink edges rising above the foliage from mid to late summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its tomentose lobed leaves remain green in colour throughout the season. 

Landscape Attributes

Fiesta Time Hollyhock is an herbaceous perennial with a rigidly upright and towering form. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other garden plants with finer foliage.

This is a high maintenance plant that will require regular care and upkeep, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration:

• Disease
• Self-Seeding

Fiesta Time Hollyhock is recommended for the following landscape applications:

• Vertical Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

Fiesta Time Hollyhock will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity extending to 3 feet tall with the flowers, with a spread of 15 inches. It tends to be leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and should be underplanted with lower-growing perennials. The flower stalks can be weak and so it may require staking in exposed sites or excessively rich soils. It grows at a fast rate, and tends to be biennial, meaning that it puts on vegetative growth the first year, flowers the second, and then dies. However, this species tends to self-seed and will thereby endure for years in the garden if allowed.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments.