Plant cardinal finally dropped in consecrated wine? (9)
I believe the answer is:
hollyhock
'plant' is the definition.
The answer is an example.
'cardinal finally dropped in consecrated wine?' is the wordplay.
'finally' indicates one should take the final letters.
'dropped in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'consecrated' becomes 'holy' ('holy' can be similar in meaning to 'consecrated').
'wine?' becomes 'hock' (hock is a kind of wine).
The last letter of 'cardinal' is 'l'.
'l' placed within 'holy' is 'holly'.
'holly'+'hock'='HOLLYHOCK'
(Other definitions for hollyhock that I've seen before include "Tall country garden flower" , "Plant with stout, hairy stems and spiky flowers" , "blooming great" , "Christmas decoration" , "A bloomer" .)