I leave my hollyhocks alone during winter. I don't cut back whatever has been frost damaged, until cold weather is over. The frost damaged parts protect the plant to some extent. Your hollyhocks ought to grow back hale and hearty come spring.

Lorna

I cut my old flowering stalks down, because they are looking pretty ratty by October. The leaves at the base of the plant always look happy and green at that time, and I'm sure if I went out right now and dug the snow off of them, they would still look pretty good. Next spring the leaves will pick up where they left off in the fall, as though winter was only a mild discomfort for them.

I grow only the single-flowered old-fashioned kind, but I think you can count on yours sending up flower stalks next spring, almost no matter what you do.

ThinMan

Thanks guys! Hollyhocks are my new favorite old flower lol. I want lots of them, to completely surround my large chicken pens. I planted like 20 some of them... all boughten. This year I'm winter sowing bunches of them lol.