Hollyhocks...

...are part of a haunting memory of mine of growing up in Iowa.  They seem to be everywhere growing like weeds.  They grew in the shade and in sunshine with a dull sort of color in a dull sort of bloom.  They did not smell nice like many flowers  but rather they had what I would call an unremarkable smell.  Not something you wanted or would remember.  For some reason I remember them growing most often in the alleys of my home town often growing against an old wooden fence or a crumbling outhouse or barn.  Not a place that any self respecting flower would want to be.