Sky High Hollyhocks

Look at the Hollyhocks! - these are the flowers of English cottages and fairy tales.  I had to pinch myself when I visited a friend here in northern Michigan at  a private community called Northport Point and saw hollyhocks growing everywhere.  

Every Spring, I am usually swayed by the deep blue delphinium when I am shopping at the garden center.  Next year I will have to keep my wits about me and remember to buy some hollyhocks for my garden.  I have a beautiful brick wall around my patio and I think hollyhocks would thrive there.  Have you had success growing hollyhocks?

These hollyhocks are sky high!  I am 5'2" and I took this photo aiming up, without a zoom.  How tall are they?  I'd guess that they are 9 feet tall, easy!

I want to remind you of the photograph I took of hollyhocks in England - it is one of my favorites.  I was driving through a small town on the way to Blenheim Palace (Winston Churchill's childhood home) when I saw them and yelled, "Stop the car!"