VAL BOURNE traces the history of a plant that is still popular today.

Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) can be star performers in August if the weather is warm and sunny! I have planted several along the south-facing wall of my cottage. But so far summer has been rather shy of showing up. I wanted them there because they look so quintessentially English.

However, hollyhocks come from rocky, bare places in Turkey and Asia but the generous number of seeds produced by each flowering spike has ensured their spread across Europe. For this reason the fecund hollyhock was chosen as a symbol of fertility and ambition in the Victorian language of flowers.

We know that hollyhocks grew wild in Palestine during the Crusades (1059-1291) and Queen Eleanor of Castile (the wife of Edward I) is credited with bringing them to England in the middle of the 13th century.

The epithet Holy recognised its status as a plant of the Holy Land and hock was Saxon for mallow, hence the name. Eleanor may have brought them back for their ornamental appeal but it's much more likely she acquired the plant for medicinal reasons because the mallow family have a reputation for being cure-alls.

Seeds were found in the 50,000-year-old tomb of a Neanderthal man and he was almost certainly growing them for medicinal reasons, not for pretty flowers. Their generic name, Alcea, actually comes from the Greek word altheo', meaning to cure.

Hollyhocks soon became an English garden staple and they were mentioned in the very first gardening book, The Feate of Gardening, by Jon Gardener, written c1440. The American colonists took seeds with them when they left and traded them with the Cherokee Indians.

By Victorian times they were firm favourites and flower shows had special classes devoted to them. One of the most famous grower was William Chater, a gardener from Essex. He produced several frilled double varieties and there is a still seed strain called Chater's Double' available today. Charles Darwin admired and grew Chater's seeds but it's worth remembering that double forms don't please the bees.

When growing hollyhocks it's much better to start from seed rather than buying plants. If they grow in a garden near you, be cheeky and ask the owner. The seeds will germinate easily whether you sow them now or in the spring - as long as you don't waterlog the compost.

Prick them out into individual pots and plant them out somewhere warm and sunny when they are small, before their tap root develops. Seedlings will probably vary because bees cross-pollinate them. You can also sprinkle seeds straight on the ground in sunny positions.

Rust and orange spotting on the stems and leaves is always a problem, especially in wet summers. The best way to limit the damage is to discard badly-affected plants and add new plants every year.

Good varieties by the packet include Thompson & Morgan's Appleblossom' (01473 688821), Mr Fothergill's Chater's White' (01638 751161) and Alcea ficifolia Yellow' from Plant World Seeds (01803 872939). Try Chiltern Seeds (01229 581137) too.