"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in message
...
In message , mark
writes
My hollyhocks have just started blooming.
On one, it has very dark red flowers, almost black. Yet on the same stem
and
next to the 'black' flowers are pale pink blooms.
Is this a common phenomena or have I stumbled upon a get rich quick
variant?

mark

"Black" hollyhocks (f. nigra) are reasonably well known. What you probably
have is a sectoral chimaera - the cell ancestral to part of the plant
mutated, disabling the gene responsible for pigment production, resulting
in paler blooms.

Even if you could propagate hollyhocks vegetatively, sectoral chimaeras
are unstable, as I found when trying to propagate a variegated sport of
Lavatera 'Barnsley'. They don't come true from seed - if you collected
seed you'd get a black-flowered and pink-flowered plants, but not one with
mixed flowers.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

Thanks Stewart. I'll not give up me paper round just yet.

mark