I'm not certain that summer would feel like summer without zinnias.
Resilient in the sun, layers of sturdy petals...
Gifting endless blossoms as long as you prune.
Same for basil and other annuals.
They believe their only purpose is to produce seeds.
So, as long as you keep pruning and not letting them go to seed they will keep gifting.
But if you do not prune they will go to seed and the plant's life purpose will be complete.
So, prune prune prune.
The remarkable thing is that all my zinnias self seeded this year.
In late autumn I leave a few zinnias there to just dry and drop onto the garden floor.
And I was lucky enough that the birds did not gobble the seeds.
And so last year's Queen Red Lime zinnias have returned.
Along with other giant volunteer zinnias here and there, including in the pumpkin patch.
I'm certain that zinnia seeds were in the little tree's planter that I transplanted out back -
Because when I planted pumpkin seeds and watered these giant raspberry zinnias grew with huge curly leaves.
Absolutely remarkable.
When I am tending garden I notice little garden findings that I know I simply must have.
Like twisted roots and stems.
To me summer is zinnias and basil.
The epitome of the season.
The bees and hummingbirds looooove zinnias.
Unfortunately, the yellow belly finches do as well, and so they eat leaves and rip off petals all day.
Ah well, it's okay for the cute little birds.
In the basket below you see oodles of Queen limes and beneath that are the giant cherry zinnia volunteers I just spoke about from my pumpkin patch.
You can see how huge they are comparatively.
I just love Queen Red Limes.
They are peachy and pinky with neon green centers.
Sometimes the lower petals turn lime green too, hence the name.
Since they self seeded they turned up extra early and now are towering, chock full of flowers.
Every gardeners dream I'm sure...
To have gobs of self seeded flowers.
I don't think I have been without zinnias in the garden for over a decade.
They last forever out in the heat, it's just amazing really.
So many colors and shape.
There are California giants, lilliputs, cactus style - just to name a few.
But I have to say that these Queen Red Limes really remind me of why I thought that the bottoms of pine cones looked exactly like zinnias.
Do you recall that tutorial here?
I've never have hundreds of thousands of people love something I did as much as the pine cone zinnias.
I can't believe how popular that was.
Every time I go onto Pinterest I see my pinecone zinnias over and over.
Once I was in an antique shop and a whole booth was dedicated to pinecone zinnias, and they had a little print out on the wall that showed my blog post.
I was floored!
I guess we all love a zinnia that will never perish.
But for now we have the zinnias of summer bobbing in the hot breeze.
I adore collecting all manner of specimens.
I love the rose hip.
Just the texture and colors of things you can find is magical.
Pruning zinnias all day long, to allow for the fresh ones to have space and keep blooming,
I'm not quite certain how it is August 1st already.
Really truly the time is just flying by.
Pumpkins, zinnias, basil.
The Queen Limes are extra vintagey, aren't they?
I sit under the citrus trees and marvel at all the growing things.
The moon is big and bright tonight.
I eat basil and tomatoes right in the garden.
I pick my zinnias in my little basket and run inside when it gets too hot.
I will collect my seeds for next year from the older zinnias that have developed some seeds.
The life of a gardener, always plotting and planning with hope for the next season.
I prune my roses a little in late August for the spring like wave of flowers that turn up in all their glory in October and November.
I have a bunch of fall vegetable seeds planted.
I got stung by a fire ant the other day, which I never had been.
I get little ant bites every day, but never a fire ant.
It was worse than my 3 or 4 scorpion stings by far.
It hurt for about 9 - 10 hours relentlessly, then let up.
I was screaming and jumping around - the pain was absolutely shocking.
And I have a pretty good tolerance for pain and discomfort.
Luckily I had no allergic reaction and it was just another gardening experience for the books.
It got me twice on a toe :-)
But all is well now, and I'm still wearing open toe shoes in the garden.
I know, bravery for sure.
The moon has a golden haze all around it through my window, so beautiful.
I look forward to the monsoon rains that turn up in August.
It is so very green out in the gardens, all manner of little tree volunteers I've been nurturing are now taller than me.
Amazing what summer brings.
For some reason several roses nearly died in the little corridor going to my studio, so I dug them up, added rooting hormone and put them in pots for now and they all had new leaves and shoots this morning after about a month and a half.
I think there must have been bugs or something there, or perhaps not enough sunlight due to the expanded canopy of the Chilean mesquite tree.
They were doing great and from one day to the next started to shrivel, which really makes me think it was a bug.
I had never seen rose bushes do that but I am delighted that they are coming back.
The chattering of a mad gardener, I tell ya.
I hope you are doing well in your neck of the woods.
We are just fine here, staying busy.
There are baby doves in the garden and I love watching mom and dad take such good care of them.
It has been outrageously hot, the dogs just run out and come right back in.
I fear they've had such a lux summer sleeping on cold floors that they've become a bit heat snobby.
But, that's okay.
Dogs are to be spoiled, that's my motto anyways.
Well, I best be off.
Early gardening ahead of me <3
Are you a zinnia lover?
I wonder if anyone has ever been named Zinnia, wouldn't that be just wonderful?
Love, Vanessa
ps: I used to share music with you that I listen to whilst writing each blog post, so I shall attempt to remember to do that in the ps section.
I tried to get here days ago, but blog writing can take a while with the photo editing and then my programs kept crashing, so happy to have finally made it here <3
I listened to ones of my favorite songs by Janapriyan Levine (Suspended) while writing this post.
I love taking baths, meditating, stretching, writing and relaxing to this song all the time.
pps:
Up in the left hand sidebar (third item down) is a new section called "Spotlight Posts."
Every so often the posts will change, but it's a section with other posts that you might enjoy in between my regular postings <3
Just a fun little addition.
