The hollyhocks, Alcea rosea, have begun to shoot up their tall spires. Beautiful, big flowers bloom from these stalks. In New Mexico I was amazed at how their dried stalks of laddered buttons had become a desert icon used in interior design. Ours, labelled "black,” have just begun to bloom. The hollyhock grows just as well on the roadside and I am always saddened when their fortnight of joyful exuberance is cut short by the highway department mowing crews.
