Hollyhock

Meet the hollyhock, the flower that grows up rather than out. A single stem rises, often taller than a person, and opens a line of silky, crinkled saucers from the bottom up, in white, pink, red, apricot, yellow and a deep maroon that is nearly black. Round, felty leaves sit at the base, and in a Dubai garden the whole plant looks as if it was borrowed from an English cottage and set against a white villa wall.

It is old and unfussy. Wikipedia describes it as a biennial, annual or short-lived perennial that grows easily from seed, seeds itself freely and will grow in a wide range of soils, and NC State notes its rigid spikes do not require staking. That unfussiness is a good fit for sandy, low-organic ground, as long as the plant gets sun and regular water.

The mood is vertical and a little nostalgic. Plant a row against a wall or a fence and you get a living screen of colour that sways in the cool winter breeze. In Dubai it is a winter plant: Bayut and Property Pistol both name hollyhock among the UAE's winter flowers.

Alcea rosea belongs to the mallow family, Malvaceae, the same family as hibiscus, and Wikipedia says it came into Europe from south-western China in or before the fifteenth century. It can reach 2.4 metres. NC State gives 5 to 8 feet (1.5 to 2.4 metres) tall and 1 to 2 feet wide, in purple, red, yellow, pink, white and orange. Its life cycle is flexible: Wikipedia calls it a biennial, an annual or a short-lived perennial, and it reseeds readily.

Dubai is not a hollyhock climate in summer. NC State says the leaves may wither in summer heat, and the plant flowers in June to August in North Carolina, so the Dubai flowering season is the cool half of the year, planted in the autumn. Property Pistol, a Dubai property site, says the tall plant has large, colourful flowers in the winter and requires full sun, and advises planting in the cooler months, such as October to April. Bayut also lists hollyhocks among the UAE's winter plants. Neither gives exact months, so the planting window on this page is our reading of the cool season.

NC State describes the soil it prefers as moist, well-drained sandy to clay loam rich in organic matter, which means compost and regular water in Dubai's sandy ground. It is susceptible to rust, leaf spot and anthracnose, and slugs, spider mites and beetles can attack it. Rust is the one to watch, as Wikipedia notes that foliage is subject to rust fungus. Shops across the UAE sell it: Plantshop.me lists 'Hollyhocks - Flowering - Outdoor Plants', and seed is on Noon and Amazon.ae.