Alcea rosea Mars Magic - Hollyhock

Fruit of 18 years of selection, the Alcea rosea 'Mars Magic' or hollyhock is a recent variety belonging to the 'Spotlight' series that produces very perennial plants with flowers in pure colours. In July-August, on sturdy stems, this plant offers a quantity of single and ephemeral flowers in well-opened cups, of a very pure light red that can be seen from afar. It prefers poor and rocky soils, drought resistant, and prefers warm locations.

The 'Mars Magic' hollyhock is also known by its Latin name Althaea rosea 'Mars Magic'. From the mallow family, it is native to Asia Minor and often naturalized in natural gardens, fallow fields, and heaps of earth.

This 'Mars Magic' variety is part of an improved series developed in Germany, with plants that show stable colours and are truly perennial and not biennial. This is an upright plant, usually unbranched, that can reach a height of 1.50 to 1.80 m (5 to 6ft). It forms a rosette of rounded leaves from which a rapid growing, robust floral stem emerges. From June to August these spike inflorescences are covered with staggered large buds that open from the bottom to the top, into large single flowers that only last for a day. They have a rare shade, a bright and light red, and a silky texture that beautifully reflects light. Throughout this period, they will attract bees and butterflies to your garden. The flowering gives way to many fruits filled with seeds that spontaneously reseed in the most unexpected areas, such as the base of walls, in poor and rocky soils, and in wall crevices.

Very common in abandoned gardens or fallow fields in our countryside, the hollyhock is often grown at the back of borders or against a wall that protects it from strong winds. The cheerful and very bright colour of this variety will allow you to create superb combinations with pink, black, or white, single or double forms. The hollyhock is an edible plant, the flower buds can be consumed raw in salads and the young leaves raw or cooked.

The hollyhock is both ornamental and medicinal. Its seeds yield an oil with drying properties. Rich in mucilage, it has soothing, emollient, expectorant, laxative, and appetizing properties.