hollyhocks

I like hollyhocks. I think they are amazing plants with fantastic flowers of deep and rich colours. There is a village on the west coast of France not too far north of Bordeaux called Talmont. It juts out into the Garonne estuary and has become quite a tourist attraction by the abundance of the hollyhocks that grow there. We have some in the front of our house. They grow up through the gaps between the drive and the neighbouring walls. They seed themselves and I find this fascinating because there are a whole bunch of flowers that you try and grow and they don’t take but when you are not bothering these do it all by themselves! All the time I have to dig out new self-seeded plants from between the brick weave to make sure they don’t completely take over.

There are places in towns and cities where trees and plants grow in the most unlikely of places. Often you can look up in the city centre to see a tree growing out of the brickwork up by the fifth floor or the like. Of course you might not want plants growing out of the side of your building – perhaps a little nurture and care is required to help things grow in more suitable places.

Jesus told a story of a farmer who sowed his seed and for once, at the insistence of his followers, we have an explanation for what he said. In essence the story says that if we sow enough seeds there will be a harvest.

Seeds that fall in good soil can produce a crop of 30, 60 or 100 times more than was sown! In Luke ch 8 v15 Jesus says,       “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop”.