No. 0903 · Alcea rosea
Midnight Hollyhock
- Crop
- Flower
- Climate
- Temperate
- Season
- Summer
- Origin
- North Yorkshire, England
No. 0903The variety
A near-black hollyhock grown against cottage walls in the Yorkshire Dales, flowering for months on stems taller than the door.
Grows best inSheltered walls and well-drained soil
Seed passport
Perennial Seed Library · Season 2026
- Origin
- North Yorkshire, England
- First documented
- 1910
- Days to maturity
- Flowers in its second summer
- Height
- 1.8 to 2.4 m
- Hardiness
- Hardy biennial
- Sun
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 50 cm
- Flavor notes
- Grown for flower; the petals once colored wine and wool
No. 0903Growth timeline
From sowing to saving seed.
Stage 01 of 06
No. 0903Story
The story of Midnight Hollyhock
Midnight Hollyhock is so dark a maroon that it reads as black from across a garden, and it was grown against the stone walls of cottages in the Yorkshire Dales, where the warmth of the wall carried it through cold springs. Its petals were once used to deepen the color of wine and wool.
Its seeds sit in flat wheels like stacked coins inside the dried flower. The library’s seed came from a garden in Wensleydale that has grown it since 1910.
Grown by
3 growers this season
Ruth Adeyemi-Hart
Hudson Valley, New York
Eamon Keane
Connemara, Ireland
Pierre-Yves Le Gall
Finistère, Brittany, France
Lending list · Season 2026
Borrow this seed.
Members borrow up to twelve varieties a year. Seed is posted on the first Monday of the month in a hand-numbered paper packet, and all we ask in return is a little of your harvest and a few lines about how it grew.