The following article is from The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs, Volume 16; 1850
I wouldn't have featured it except the list of named varieties from the talented hands of the gentleman from Prado is so much fun to say and savor!!
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If I were not afraid of advancing a horticultural heresy, I should say that many amateurs prefer Hollyhocks to Dahlias.
The Hollyhocks of Belgium and Germany had a great celebrity long before they appeared among us. The collections of the Prince of Salm Dyck, and of M. Van Houtte, of Ghent, have been much admired. In other places varieties have been obtained with leaves more or less lobed, more or less entire, more or less palmate, all with flowers large, full, or colored differently from those of other plants, being sometimes of a more or less dark mahogany color, at others of a delicate tint, and varying from the purest white to the darkest glossy black.
Some progress has also been made in the cultivation of those plants by ourselves. Since 1830 M. Pelissier, Jun., a gentleman of Prado, has cultivated Hollyhocks, and from the seeds of a pink variety has succeeded in obtaining plants with flowers of a delicate rose color, and which, in consequence of the extreme delicacy of their tints, and regularity of form, may serve both to encourage perseverance and as a good type for seed. In the following year, from the seeds of pink flowers, he obtained a beautiful, brilliant, clean, sulphur-colored specimen, perfect in every respect. It is from the seeds of those two plants that he has obtained all the other beautiful and remarkable varieties which he now possesses, after a lapse of ten years from his first attempts.
As a general rule, M. Pelissier prefers flowers with six exterior petals, with entire edges, well open, well set out, of a middling size, of a pure, clean, brilliant color, and forming a perfect Anemone. Seeds sown in the spring and in unwatered ground, never flower till the second year.
Experience has shown that if the seeds are sown in September, and in earth which is kept fresh, flowers may be obtained in June or July following, which are in no way inferior to those of spring-sown seeds.
M. Pelissier follows the following plan of procedure. The seeds, which are taken as soon as they are ripe, from good specimens, are sown in September, in a border a foot and a half deep, and composed of good coarsely sifted garden earth, mixed with well worked soil. The seeds, if they are covered lightly with leaf-mould, and the soil is kept fresh, begin to swell at the end of a week; they require little care till spring, as they are not hurt by frost. In the spring the ground must be repricked, occasionally hoed and frequently watered. As the flowers expand, M. Pelissier removes whatever is not conformable to the type he has chosen, or is not of a marked color, and like a perfect Anemone.
Experience has shown that if the seeds are sown in September, and in earth which is kept fresh, flowers may be obtained in June or July following, which are in no way inferior to those of spring-sown seeds.
M. Pelissier follows the following plan of procedure. The seeds, which are taken as soon as they are ripe, from good specimens, are sown in September, in a border a foot and a half deep, and composed of good coarsely sifted garden earth, mixed with well worked soil. The seeds, if they are covered lightly with leaf-mould, and the soil is kept fresh, begin to swell at the end of a week; they require little care till spring, as they are not hurt by frost. In the spring the ground must be repricked, occasionally hoed and frequently watered. As the flowers expand, M. Pelissier removes whatever is not conformable to the type he has chosen, or is not of a marked color, and like a perfect Anemone.
It is by doing this every year that he has obtained 20 remarkable varieties, the names and characteristics of which have been kindly furnished by him, and are given below.
1. Souvenir de Malmaison, delicate rose, flower very full; perfection.
2. Geant de Batailles, red, flower very full.
3. Vestale, fine pure white, flower very full.
4. Anais, rose, flower very full; perfection.
5. Chromatella, dark yellow, flower very full.
6. Jeune Euphemie, clear red, flower beautiful, full; perfection.
7. Heine Victoria, cinnamon colored, shaded, flower very full.
8. Grand Peking, nankeen-colored, flower very full .
9. Amarante, dark red, flower very full .
10. Isabelle, dark red, flower very full .
11. Grand Colbert, dork rose, streaked, flower full, very perfect
12. Marie Gabrielle, fleshy white, flower full; beautiful.
13. Matilde, clear cherry, flower very full.
14. Solfaterre, very clear yellow, flower very full.
15. Boule de Neige, beautiful white, flower well rounded, full .
16. Ophirie, yellow with a tint of pink, flower very full.
17. Arlequin, clear, approaching to dark violet, spotted with white.
18. Desprez, white, middle yellow.
19. Proserpine, very dark red, flower very ful1 .
20. Pluton, black, flower very full.
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