Yes, it's a Sunflower!

There's another one growing nearby, too. I have never been able to grow sunflowers from seed, in spite of trying really hard. Yet they fall out of the feeder and thrive! Go figure!

The Great Zinnia Mystery

You may have read about my giant zinnia.

I saved the seeds. A great, big pile of seeds, and then planted them around in various beds this spring. I wrote just the other day about the strange color of one of them - it was more red, where the original was bright pink.

Here is what has come up around the flagpole the past few days:


Here's another from the back garden. It's darker, but closer to the color of last year's original.


Here's the thing. The saved seeds came from ONE plant (see entry in the link above). ALL of those flowers were the bright, hot pink. Is it possible that the saved seeds could produce different colored flowers? I searched around on Google today, and all I found were a few people who noticed their saved seeds produced a different shade of the same color. No one, that I found, had completely different colors.

But that ONE plant came from a packet of mixed seeds that I just dumped into the flagpole bed on a whim. Is it possible that some seeds lay dormant for an entire year? That the different colors of flowers are from old seeds - not the ones I planted there this year, saved from last year's plant?

I don't think that could be possible. Why would they have sprouted right when they should have (based on when I sowed the seeds)? Also I would expect some to be miniatures as were in the packet. These are all large.

This is exactly the kind of thing that will drive me crazy until I figure it out. Help!

Today's Pick

Here's what I harvested today.

We have cherry and grape tomatoes, snow peas, eggplant, cayenne peppers, sweet and red onions (those were planted to provide green onions, not bulbs, so the bulb growth was a nice surprise), a Creole tomato, basil, tarragon, oregano, thyme, and parsley. Now to fix them for supper! Yum!

Here is the flagpole flower bed now. The zinnias are growing nicely. I saved the seed from last year's plants.

Please click the link to read about it from last year. Then come back here and tell me I am not blind and these flowers are a completely different color? Well, at least a different shade of the same color family?

This year's Zinnia:

Last year's Zinnia:
Yes, I am sure the seeds came from the above plant. If you read the story, you already know they were all from the SAME one plant. Can't wait to see what happens to the next batch!

Here are a few more finds in the garden today:









Now, here is a stupid question... When I saw this tall thing growing (below, and on the left side of the above picture) I didn't think it was a weed, so I left it alone. I thought it was a zinnia. I knew I hadn't planted one there, but there have been others sprouted around that I figure were spread by birds or wind. But today I took a closer look and it sure is no zinnia. What is it? Is it a sunflower?? That would make sense - it's right under the bird feeder! I think it looks like one, but I guess I won't know for sure until it blooms (I am no sunflower expert!).


Finally - a Deep Thought for today. "If you want to see the butterflies, you have to let the caterpillars eat your passiflora". (Just please leave the healthy red one alone....OK babies??).