Bloom of the Day: Zinnia (Asteraceae)

  Favored by butterflies and people of all ages, the Zinnia has at least 20 annual and perennial type qualities, come in all kinds of colors; even variegated, and can be low mounding types or tall, somewhat stalkless (sessile) appearance.  Actually, I find that most of them have the hollow peduncle stems that are short and interspersed with leaves that grow right off the stalk.  It has also been around since the mid 1700's and named after a German botonist with the last name of Zinn who named the genus.  Thank you Herr Zinn!

  The blooms that grow all over the Americas and Europe come in rows of petals around a center, or sometimes is multi-layered like a little dome of petals. There are all kinds of sizes of blooms right in the same patch.  Usually, there is a center circular "crown" of yellow-gold little cross-like stamens (I am guessing here on the anatomical-botanical properties) after the blooms have been open for a few days.  I have all colors and the ones I love the most must have actually gotten some fertilizer...they are practically neon, they are so bright!  Purples, reds, orange, yellow, pink, red and white striped...oh, so many to enjoy!

 I learned something new today; I discovered early on that you can dry the heads and save them for next years seed stock, but, it may not produce the same color as the parent.  That would explain it!

 Here I am, even now, drying the heads by color.

 One great thing about Zinnias are that the colors you like the most, cut the most frequently.  They absolutely will give you an abundance of blooms if you deadhead every few days.  I am harvesting now and have a vase in every room of the house, some places in a grouping.

  I am so thankful for summer time!

  We had a huge storm in this area this past weekend and some of my Zinnia friends were layed completely over or yanked out by the roots! That happened to some of my sun flowers in full regalia as well.  One stalk was completely uprooted and laid over like some of the trees in the neighborhood.  I cut off 24 blooms from one stalk.  I hated it being a casualty!  Sometimes, like a friend, you don't know what ails them and you hope they snap out of it in a day or two!

 Try them out if you have a friend who will give you some seeds for next year; of course if you live in a region lower than 6 where I am, you might be able to get another bloom in before frost; certainly if you do not have frost, you can. 

  In the garden of life, I hope we are mostly Zinnia; cheerful, resiliant, abundantly blooming and easy to cultivate. Cut a bunch and enjoy them; not aromatic but they are lovely!

Sunflowers: Tall Friends in the Garden of Life (Helianthus)

Bashful Sunflower

  To our tall friends in life and in the garden, I think there is nothing so stately as the sunflower.   They are way taller than my 63 inches and are one of the greatest cultivars in the garden or by the field-full!

  In Latin, flos solis (pronounced with the long O sound in both parts) has not only edible seeds for humans and foul but are produced for its golden oil used in cooking.  We have local farmers, who though not as showy as our Kansas cousins who plant by the mile, will plant a few acres in sunflowers. It gives fodder to the four-legged animals as well as attracting doves, cardinals and other songbirds in the back yard too.

 I learned something new today about sunnies; a common seed packet tells me to dead-head or cut off the spent blooms which produces more growth. I knew that about other annuals but not sunflowers.

 Being not exactly a farm girl, I learned that you have to wait until the seeds mature in the plant and dry, before you can replant them.

 The sunflower seeds are hidden beneath that wonderful cushion of tiny symetrical rows that you see on the face of the bloom itself.  Once the head begins to mature or dry on the stalk, those little protective pieces can be chipped off by birds or hands and then you can pull the vertically stored seeds out for roasting and eating, or for leaving on the head for the birds.  When this starts occurring in August, I will scrape some off and show you what treasures lie beneath!  You will be amazed if you have never seen it.

  With drying seeds, do it on something paper until they are completely dried...several days of drying or you will lose your entire next year's seed crop to mildew and rot if you put it into a plastic bag prematurely. (Ayup, been there done that). 

 The beauty of annuals that reseed is that they theoretically can be a perennial (ones that return year after year without replanting) because they drop their seeds and some do regrow.   To help with seed stock, I have several friends that trade in the long days of winter; why pay $3 for ten seeds when you can trade with a friend and get a hundred for free?! It gives us fellowship around the table, talking about the long days of summer that we are longing for!

  In the garden of life, being a shorter person have I always had to be on the front row of any kind of group picture and so one time, I thought to ask a tall friend what is is really like being tall.  She is taller than most men and though not ashamed of her height she does not exactly like to stick out of the pack, either.  She said that people naturally gravitate to her to make decisions and ask directions of her which can be presumptuous and sometimes annoying. 

  I would like to have that view for awhile but, I will maximize being a snap dragon in the row.  Somebody has to fill that part!

  I took her a few of my sunflower seedlings one year to remind her that she is such a sunny person and we all love seeing her head above the crowd!