My wife says the neighbor is stealing her hollyhocks. She is probably
correct. The holes are clean, like from an English hand trowel, no
foot prints around them. What is left of her seedlings in a hole
2"wide by 3" deep. They were randomly planted amidst scattered other
species. My wife is not into symmetry. So... if they were stolen by
a human, the thief had to know exactly what the baby plant looks like.

I read somewhere that baby plants are eaten down by rabbits but they
do not dig holes. Red and gray squirrels eat bulbs .. not rooted
planted as best I can tell.

So .. it seems there is an 80% chance she is correct and maybe
there is a 20% chance squirrels are doing it, but do not leave digging
mounds and not tracks?