Tag Archive | zinnia

Saving Seeds: Zinnia

Apr18

Harry introduced me to the exuberant Zinnia. Their bold, enduring colorful flowers bloom all summer until the frost comes. I try to extend the season by covering them with row cover or plastic and sometimes get an extra week or two of color. Hummingbirds and butterflies come to Zinnia blossoms and I feel the love flowing from my heart to fly with them.

Jenna passed these seeds on to me last fall after she watched my Zinnia’s growing last summer. Her job on The Hill is to manage security. She strides across the fields with strength and confidence. Like the Zinnia, Jenna is tough and beautiful. We shared a number of pleasant flower conversations.

The seeds are sorted by blossom color. Seeds with no petals are groups together as mixed colors. One of the sections is for immature, unformed seeds. I’m planning a bold red Zinnia section in the flower garden.

Zinnia are said to represent thoughts of forgotten friends. It makes it somewhat fitting to offer the rest of the seeds at the Friends of The Hill Plant Sale andSwap on May 19th.

Zinnia are happiest when planted by seed directly into the warm soil. They are fussy transplants, but will make it into the garden with some attention and coddling. These little babies are from two plantings. The seeds were saved from my Zinnia and I don’t know if the parents are open pollinated or hybrid. Time will tell.

I choose beauty and color to bring solace in this hard, sometimes hurtful world. Turning toward joy, the seeds call to be planted, to germinate, to burst forth reaching for the light.

Tuesday View 7.25.17 – Cully

Jul25

Returning to the Memorial Garden, singing farewell songs and remembering Cully.  He educated thousands of of people about our God-given right to cannabis and the benefits of the hemp plant.  When folks were divided about this or that in the Maine cannabis community, Cully kept going, doing the work that needed to be done. Teaching.  

With the powerful wail of the bagpipes setting his earth spirt free, I recommitted mySelf in his honor and memory to never back down from doing my part to speak truth to power.  There are so many acts of “resistance of the heart against business as usual” to be done.  I think that when we do what we can individually, the collective impact creates the world we want to live in.


We just don’t get to know how anything will turn out.  What we get to do is the work to make it possible. So we go in faith, hope and love.  But we must surely keep going. Keep the faith. Walk in beauty. Seek joy. Turn on your love light and let it shine. 


In the beginning, I did not know what this plant would bring to the Memorial Garden.  I still don’t know anything but the magnificent fragrance and bouncy cheerful color I can see from my kitchen window. And I remember Cully’s mischievous grin. His vibrant twinkle. The sticky sweet green bud he shared so freely and with such pleasure. 


The work of liberation and resistance doesn’t end. Harry say that rights are not given, they are won and taken.  The garden needs weeding, so the fullness of color has space to emerge.  Weeds of indecision, past regrets, discouragement, fear, weariness–rip them out and make way for an explosion of color revolution.


Cully was one of the political forces that created The Hill. To the cause of cannabis liberation, he did indeed commit his life, his fortune and his sacred honor.  In honoring his work, we can do no less. 

In a Vase on Monday 7.3.17

Jul3

Flower songs in my vase this morning…

This land is my land, no one can stop me as I go walking the Freedom highway, this land was made for you and me.  

I carry that hope and believe we shall come together to wield the hammer of Justice, ring out the bell of freedom, and sing songs about love all over this land. 

Fourth day of July sun so hot, clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky….from sea to shining sea, 

Please say a prayer, it’s Independence Day.

Seeking beauty and turning toward joy is a choice. Red, white and blue flowers–sweet William, larkspur, Daisy, radish flower, borage flower and zinnia sitting on the old hay rake.  

Gathering the cut hay with the antique equipment was an adventure.  It was a two person job, one on the tractor, the other riding the rake.  And truely dangerous.  The rake could uncouple or hit ledge and you could end up rolling down the hill backward on a hay rake–no brakes, but the tines would slow it all down eventually.  


The overhead view balancing between the framework.  The larkspur is from early starts from saved seed.  The self sowing larkspur hasn’t flowered yet.  

As I prepare my offering for Rambling in the Garden weekly gathering of vases, I’ve been thinking how hard it is to set aside the time to be in front of a screen, when I’d rather be outside with Harry in the garden.  

The reason for the blog still motivates me.  I want to share my summer of growing flowers and food with my family and we are so far flung–scattered all about.  

With gratitude, with love, with joy.

Not Fade Away…

In a Vase on Monday 6.19.17

Jun20

For this weeks vase, I have my first Zowie Zinnias, Shasta daisy, Harry’s roses, and Colorado yarrow leaves placed next to Nana’s garden cherub.  She was one of my flower garden teachers.  She taught me to put a nail in the ground next to the hydrangea so it will turn blue. She said always plant cosmos because they are easy to grow and have lovely color.


The Zowie zinnia are new to me.  They are a winter flower catalog seed dream and so far I am saying wowie zowie what a zinnia. Harry prefers a more traditional zinnia palette, but I am easily swayed by seed catalog descriptions and fancy photos.

Harry’s roses will bloom until the end of fall.  They have a heady aroma and Harry will harvest the rose hips for winter tea.

I planted the Colorado yarrow when my son was there for school.  It will have a rosy flower when it blooms.  The ferniness of the foliage appeals to me.

“I’ll give you a daisy a day dear, I’ll give you a daisy a day. I’ll love you until all the rivers run still and the four winds we know blow away.” (Jud Strunk)

It’s a daisy kind of flower power love.  Can you dig it?

The top view is taken out by Harry’s nettle patch. 


Take a flower journey over at the Rambling in the Garden blog. It is my motivation for my Monday vases. 

Garden Tour April 2017: Meet the Seedlings

Apr6

Snow outside, but green and even some blooms inside.  Soon, very soon, the great transition begins and I will be moving all my green babies outside to their summer homes.

I’m enjoying the flower gardening blogs I’ve discovered on this new journey!  Kindred souls around the world. I found stunning kale ready for the compost shredder in the garden rumination blog from England. His blog inspired this seedling garden tour!

Let me introduce my 2017 garden babies.


Durango Marigold. Edible flower marigold for the Green Love garden. This is the first time I’ve grown this variety. The seed is from Johnny’s Selected Seed. I’ve had great success with Johnny’s varieties.

Garden Peach Tomato. I have three extra early plants that I plan to grow in pots to use in the Green Love Renaissance Garden. The yellow tomatoes, blush red when they are ripe and have peach like fuzzy skin. These plants are from my saved seed.  

Stevia. The saved seed is from my garden buddy Andy. It hasn’t germinated yet, but I am hopeful.  

Crazy Daisy. I love daisies. I pick our field daisies and sing an old Jud Strunk song I carry on my heart. This daisy has a whirly curly description.

Penny Mix Pansies. This variety is reported to bloom all through the summer. They are smaller plants and not as vigorous as the Majestic Giants. I’m hoping they work in the pots and planters.

Sorbet Pansies. I love the colors in this variety. My favorite is a light flecked that make me smile, smile, smile. 
More Durango Marigolds and Shasta Daisies. I am planning a border with calendula, Shasta daisy and something blue, maybe larkspur. 
Ailsa Craig onions. Sweet and sooooo big. These have been a main stay in my summer cooking garden for years. They don’t store very well, but even the small ones are big. 

Borettana Cipolini. The most beautiful onion for braiding. They are flat, button-like. I’ve made yummy creamed onion with the smaller ones. A super storage onion, too.

Talon Onion. A new storage onion from Fedco Seeds. We ran out of onions early this winter. I’m hoping to do better! 

Bleu Solaize Leek. They come alive with a shimmery blue color. The layering pattern of leek leaves is a close up fascination for Farmer Brown.

Majestic Giant Pansies. My old reliable stand by. Magnificent color. Large blooms. It is incredibly vigorous compared to Sorbet or Penny.

Cannabis. All legally grown. With gratitude, with love, with joy.

Master Kush. An indica cross created out of two landrace strains from different parts of the Hindu Kush region. 
Orange Crush. A sativa-dominant strain with California Orange and Blueberry.
Chronic. A hybrid cross between Northern Lights, Skunk, and AK-47 originally bred by Serious Seeds in 1994.

Rose cutting from my ancestor, Moses Patrick’s graveyard.  It has leaves!!!! 

Daisies. “More, more, more” said the garden mama.

Daddy Mix Petunia. Another old favorite of mine. The seed is inexpensive and there are so many colors.
Zowie Zinnia.  I’m growing Zowie in containers for the Green Love garden. It’s an AAS winner and the descriptions say “magnificent.”

Benary’s Giant Zinnia. For Farmer Brown it’s not a flower garden without giant Zinnia and he will make me bouquets with them until frost takes them out.

Seems like all this life
Was just a dream
Stella Blue