Zinnia: A Transitional Summer to Fall Flower

Hi there!  I have been away on vacation and am trying very hard to get back into the swing of regular life.  I have to tell you it is hard!  I love summer and am very sad to see it go!  However, fall is my next favorite season so, hopefully, I will be able to transition through OK :).

I think right now I can relate with zinnias.  They seem to have one foot in summer and another one in fall.  They are a funny little flower.  You plant them with all of your other annuals in late spring/early summer and they kind of just hum along without you even noticing.  And then, all of a sudden in August they are blooming in all of their glory and carry through right into September~ ushering in fall colors, without us really being aware!

I have taken zinnias for granted for many, many years.  As a kid, my mother only had two flowers in her garden: marigolds and zinnias.  So when I started planting gardens on my own as a married woman, I vehemently tried to stay away from those old standbys until I discovered they were the only flowers that bloomed beautifully and continually throughout the summer in one specific place in my yard.  I was forced to take them into account.

I recently was told by my mother that my lovely maternal grandmother loved zinnias.  I wish I had known that a long time ago.  I would have held these lovely flowers in higher esteem.

Last year, I shared with you my joy of farms and farm stands.  You can see that post here if you would like.  The picture above is of Parlee's Farm in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.  It is only a town or two away from my home and it has a lovely cutting garden with zinnias, dahlias and sunflowers to pick.  It is a great place and I have made my way over there a few times in the past few weeks ;).

The photo above is of my little patch of zinnias.  It isn't the prettiest of patches but, it is my patch and I love looking out my kitchen window and seeing it.

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Recently, I shared with you another visit to Parlee's where I created a few farm-to-table event items such as a boutonniere, wrist corsage and a centerpiece.  If you would like to see this post, you may see it here, as well.  I had a lot of fun making those pieces and...

I decided to go back again this week and finish up with a bridal bouquet.  I gathered zinnias and dahlias from the farm, a few miscellaneous items from my yard, mostly grasses and such and grabbed a small bunch of seeded eucalyptus from Trader Joe's.  I wanted to share the final product with you as a finality to my previous post.

Here it is~

Don't you just love the colors?!

I enjoyed making the final installment of my farm-to-table event collection.  Hopefully now, you can see why I have come to love zinnias.  They are a happy flower that is still going strong when many other annuals have seen better days.  And, as I said, they kind of usher in fall colors~quite naturally.

I especially love that my grandmother loved zinnias, as well.  Now I will think of her every time I look at them.  And now that I think of it, my mother's garden always looked great, too.  I am not sure what my problem was all those years ago.  I will blame it on youth :).

I wanted to share some pictures of my trip to Bar Harbor, Maine and other coastal places but, evidently, I had my phone set on movie and haven't been able to figure out how to share the photos with you!  It was a fun trip, nonetheless!  Now I need to focus on fall~

***I have not been compensated in any way for this post.

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