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Flowers and gardens

Hollyhocks – Roses trémières

photo_148_hollyhocks
Hollyhocks are among those wonderful species of flowers that grow whether it rains or not and if you don’t cut off the dead flowers too soon, they are self-seeding. The origin of the word hollyhock is mid-13c., holihoc, probably from holi “holy” + hokke “mallow,” from Old English hocc, a word of unknown origin. Another early name for the plant was caulis Sancti Cuthberti “St. Cuthbert’s cole.” Native to China and southern Europe, the old story is that it was so called because it was brought from the Holy Land.
Les roses trémières font partie des ces merveilleuses espèces qui poussent qu’il pleuve ou non. De plus si vous ne coupez pas les fleurs fanées trop tôt, elles se propagent toutes seules. Trémièire provient de “oustremer” utilisé uniquement dans la locution “rose d’oustremer”. Elle était appelée ainsi parce qu’elle n’était pas indigène en France.

7 replies on “Hollyhocks – Roses trémières”

They are actually in the field opposite our house, between it and the river. They grew spontaneously when we threw away the cuttings from our own hollyhocks which line the front fence. Our rainwater empties into the field so we have to keep it clear.

They are jolly good value if you live somewhere like here so they don’t get attacked by rust. They are fairly hopeless in Britain these days because of the rust fungus.
The explanation of the French name is interesting. I’d wondered why ‘trémière’.

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