A herbaceous flowering plant of the hibiscus family, hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) are usually tall, but this one has grown higher than the house.
"I’m amazed by just how tall it has become — it’s a good six inches above the spouting," Mrs Bremner said.
"My neighbours and I have been enjoying watching its progress, which has been quite incredible — it looks to be about 4m tall now."
A keen gardener in her younger days, Mrs Bremner bought three seedling hollyhocks to plant last year.
"None of them did much to start with, but then this one just took off," she said.
"I haven’t done anything special, apart from give it regular drinks of water, since it is in a dry part of the garden."
As Dunedin’s damp, chill summer had produced the "worst growing season in years" for much of the garden, including the roses, it was cheering to have a spectacular result from her hollyhock experiment.
"It has shown itself to be quite the plant."
