When I was a little girl my mom taught me how to make hollyhock dolls. We had hollyhocks growing next to the house where I grew up and I’d make hollyhock dolls whenever the fancy struck me and I had the right ingredients.
I taught Clare how to make them a few years ago, but have never been successful at growing hollyhocks myself.
Until this year — and, while it is far from successful, we have two hollyhock flowers blooming as I type.
So, while I cannot make any hollyhock dolls this year, maybe the flowers will produce seeds which will sow themselves and we’ll be able to make them next year.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Clutch Cargo Lips 
I’ve never seen anything like that!
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To make hollyhock dolls, you have to have the old “heirloom” hollyhocks like the ones in the photo above. The “new” hollyhocks are hybrid and are doubles, not suitable for making the skirt of the doll.
When I was young (a looooong time ago) we made the dolls from a full blossom, a half-open bud, and a tight bud, held together with a toothpick. The full blossom is the “skirt”, the half-opened blossom is the bodice, and the tightly closed bud is the head. You can get fancy and make a two-tiered skirt, if you like.
Old hollyhocks are self-seeding, so if you don’t use Round-up or other herbicides around where they grow, the next year you should have a bumper crop. You can also save the seed pods, open them, and scatter seed anywhere you’d like to see their brightly colored flowers.
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