Miss Hollyhock

When I was a little girl and we would go to my Auntie Barbara's house in Illinois during the summer, she always had hollyhocks growing in her backyard flower bed.  I thought they were so special because we couldn't grow them in Florida.  One day she taught me how to make a doll out of the buds and flowers and from that time on, every time I was up there in the summer, I would make the pretty dolls and would play with them.  I planted some hollyhock seeds by the green house, last summer and they actually came up.  It takes a year before they will bloom though.  I was so excited to see the buds on them about a month ago and then they started to bloom.  I couldn't wait to make my first Alabama Miss Hollyhock.  What to my surprise when there were two different colored flowers that looked like  on one bush, but I'm sure they are two different plants...just planted close to each other.  It made me smile and think of my Auntie Barbara when I put Miss Hollyhock on the mantel.  Auntie has been gone for over 25 years and I still miss her very much but I have so many wonderful memories with her which live on each day.