Alcea rosea x-hollyhocks Malvaceae Kristin Yanker-Hansen, Danville. I know, Kristen brought this as Althaea and it is also a hollyhock, but the ones most of us are familiar with are the " 'olly'ocks ten feet 'igh" with the round basal leaves and numerous flowers on a tall raceme. The flowers shown were 2 to 3-inch rose-colored single blossoms, but there are white, yellow, rose, pink and dark red single and double forms. These are biennials or "weak" perennials as they put so much into flowering and setting seed. Unknown origin - probably Turkey. The name is Greek and refers to a kind of mallow. Althaea is also Greek in origin, but means "a cure' and the plants were used in herbal medicines. Althaea officinalis is a marsh mallow or white mallow and forms a grey-leafed, 6 foot hairy bush with 1.5- inch flowers. Native to Europe and naturalized in the eastern U.S. Linaeus named both genera so this is a case of two very similar sounding names getting merged unintentionally.