Hollyhock

In 1980, after more than 100 years of ownership in Mt. Healthy, OH, the Davies family sold their ancestral home. The home itself dates to 1830. Before leaving the property, my father-in-law, William Donald Brand Davies and his brother, David, gathered seeds from the family stand of Hollyhocks on the property. The seeds were eventually distributed to relatives across the country. My wife and I are caretakers of this Hollyhock, now growing here in Oregon. Each year we tend to it like a member of our family, which it has certainly become (has always been, I guess).

It was fascinating to learn that the town, in what is now the Cincinnati metro region, was actually founded as "Mt. Pleasant" in 1817. In 1850 the townspeople renamed it to Mt. Healthy following a cholera epidemic in which many people survived while those from surrounding communities did not.