Alcea Alcea Alcea is a genus of about 60 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, commonly known as the hollyhocks. They are native to Asia and Europe. The single species of hollyhock from the Western Hemisphere, the streambank wild hollyhock, belongs to a different genus. Hollyhocks are annual, biennial, or perennial plants usually taking an erect, unbranched form. The herbage usually has a coating of star-shaped hairs. The leaf blades are often lobed or toothed, and are borne on long petioles. The flowers may be solitary or arranged in fascicles or racemes. The notched petals are usually over
San Francisco Flower & Garden Show Garden Show in northern California were the Oakland Spring Flower Show which was produced by the California Association of Nurserymen from 1930 to 1978 (with a three-year hiatus from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II). In the early 1980s the rock ‘n roll impresario Bill Graham produced two annual flower shows at the Cow Palace. The show as it appears today was started in 1986 as the San Francisco Landscape Garden Show by volunteers for the Friends of Recreation and Parks in San Francisco as a fundraiser for that organization (in 2006 the organization’s name changed to San