The lore of the hollyhock

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette

Everybody knows a grandma who grew hollyhocks on the farm, either as the tall backdrop flowers in her formal front yard flower bed, or as a pretty wall of greenery and flowers to hide the outhouse. In the language of flowers, hollyhocks mean "fruitfulness" and "abundance," and are every farm's good luck charm. Traditionally, country people have scattered hollyhocks on their doorsteps on May Day, for good luck from one year to the next. And they're just fun, for little girls who poke a not-quite-open blossom onto the stem of a full blossom and invert it all to make a sassy southern belle wearing a full, colorful "skirt."

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette