Zinnias

Zinnias coming soon (maybe)

It's another quiet day in the garden - no caterpillars to be found and no photogenic bugs to pose for my camera. Earlier this week, I planted some zinnia seeds in the front flower bed. Right now it's just a big empty space, but within a couple of weeks it should be looking good (as long as I don't get lazy and let the bed dry out before the seedlings get established, which is a definite possibility).

I'm cheating and showing some of last year's zinnias in bloom

Zinnias are generally pretty easy to grow from seed, at least around here. The only tricky part is that they need hot weather (even at night) and quite a bit of water until the seedlings grow out of their delicate phase. I tried planting a batch back in early May because it was unseasonably warm and pretty rainy, but then we got some weird late-spring "cold" front that dropped the nighttime temperature all the way into the 50's for a few nights just as the seeds were germinating. So, I had to start over.

Aside from being easy to grow and not needing much water once their grown up, zinnias have a few other things going for them. They're pretty (obviously). They come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Some people say it's best not to go crazy with colors when landscaping. I am not one of those people. I plant as many varieties as I can find. The flowers are also good for cutting and last a relatively long time in a vase. And, last but not least, bees and hummingbirds love them. The past two years we've had a hummingbird family that lived in the trees behind our house and visited our zinnias several times a day all summer long.