Tag Archives: zinnias

In a Vase on Monday – Beauty and Some Beasts

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I was in the mood for a cottagey vase this week and set out to find some less tropically mad flowers. Spell check seems to think cottagey is not a word. While roses are out of the question (I choose not to torment myself) I like cottage garden flowers and always have some zinnias going. The heat dome frying my garden finally dissipated and it actually rained!! Hopes were high for some new flowers. I found some beauties and some beasts.

The beauties in the vase are the Zinnias and Beautyberry. I selected seeds last year hoping to get orange and pink Zinnias and here they are! The Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana) intrigues me. I had this shrub in my garden 600 miles north of here and it refused to grow in the sun and did not produce berries until November. In Florida, I have berries in August, it thrives in full sun and happily lives in sugar sand. It is a head scratcher. Oh, Copper Fennel is also a beauty. This one lives through July (a major accomplishment) and is flowering in August!

The beasts are the ferns and the daisies. The ferns are the invasive Asian Sword Ferns (Nephrolepis brownii) I’ll admit to liking these, pulling them out by the bag and enjoying a few swords in vases from time to time. They aren’t too beastly in the sugar sand, but I can imagine with unlimited water things could get ugly. The other beast is Bidens alba, ironically a valued native pollinator flower – it produces so many seeds it is difficult to keep in one place. The butterflies do love it.

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The Zinnias with a bit of purple Beautyberry and chartruese Fennel flowers.

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The beastly Asian Sword Ferns and white Bidens alba.

I am dreaming of cooler weather and some more rain.

Visit Cathy at Ramblinginthegarden by following the link where more vases full of weekly garden treasures can be found.

In A Vase on Monday – Zinnias & Veg

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It is a happy Sunday in my garden. The winter vegetables are ripening and the Zinnias are flowering. This is the first week of February and, as a lifelong resident of the Northern Hemisphere, seems a bit odd to me- having Zinnias and vegetables from the garden. We have been eating lettuce, cabbage, herbs, green beans and radishes from my garden; peppers, potatoes and snow peas are coming soon.

 

A major consideration when moving to Florida is the total avoidance of winter and we moved to South Florida for its lack thereof. So far, so good. The Zinnias started to flower a week or two ago, not very impressive so I let them go. Now, I wish I had planted more seed and will go to search for more Cactus Zinnia seed. I admit, to being a (former) Zinnia snob. I grew Mexican Zinnias (Z.linearis or now,angustifolia) in containers for years -always considering the other types, pedestrian.

I announce my love for the pedestrian Zinnia! Who wouldn’t fall in love with these cheerful pink and orange flowers? I have, years too late.

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The pink and orange flowers are Cactus Zinnias. Funky orange and red flowers,  our native Gallardias that have just started back up. Foliage is from the vegetable garden, green leaves from Chinese Cabbage, darker ferny foliage from Copper Fennel. Glass container, an heirloom from my mother- I am certain she would join me in being thrilled with the Zinnias and Winter Veg.

Happy Monday.