Red hollyhock flower

When I started teaching at St Anne's College, my line manager - who's a keen gardener - gave me various veg seeds in an envelope.

I found surprise seeds at the bottom of the envelope and he told me later that they were seeds he'd collected from the college hollyhocks. He said I should keep them. 

So I sowed the seeds, grew on the plants, planted them out on the plot. Hollyhocks are biennials so they flower in year 2.

I've only just left the college (and teaching) and it's a funny coincidence that it took the hollyhocks the time I worked at St Anne's to go from seed to flower... and that the flowers happen to be red, the main colour of the college arms. 

My new adventure working as college gardener at St Hilda's starts in a week and I'm very excited!