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Colorful Zinnias grown from last year's saved seeds!

Every year in September I snip some of the colorful Zinnia blossoms from the stems.  The blossoms are dried out and then the Zinnia seeds are harvested and saved for next year's crop.  

The dried Zinnia seeds

The following Spring, usually in late May, the seeds are planted.  Before we know it the little green sprouts have 3 to 4 sets of leaves.  They are on their way to add color to our gardens.

Today it was great to see an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly fly in for a visit!
 

That is a great perk!  The colorful Zinnias also attract Monarch Butterflies and we have seen Hummingbirds visit.  

 Do you have Zinnias blossoming in your gardens?  Do you save seeds to plant the following year?  It is easy to do.

Enjoy!
Happy gardening!

Planting Saved Zinnia Seeds

Zinnia seeds

It's time!  You may be thinking "time for what?"  Time to plant the Zinnia seeds that were saved from last year's crop.  That was accomplished today.  It was a perfect day to plant them with our warm weather today and it will continue.

We are dreaming about enjoying a colorful abundant crop- like we do every year.

Colorful Zinnias from a previous crop.

 

In a few days we will be looking for the small green seedlings to pop up.

Happy gardening!

 

~Summer Colors~

O.K., we are having another heat wave !  Today is Day 5 !  Being outside has not been very comfortable, but the flowers in our gardens do not seem to mind the readings on our thermometer.  Well, we are making sure they have water.  I'm sure that makes it a lot easier for them.

On Monday the very last Salmon Daylily blossomed!  It is unusual not to look out our window and see a large quantity of salmon colored blossoms every day.

The Zinnia, Vinca and Marigold seeds that we planted in the late Spring are also producing colorful flowers!!

    
We plant the Zinnia seeds saved from the previous year's crop.  This year we purchased some Marigold and Vinca seeds, because it was unclear if and when we would locate the plants to buy.  Later, bright yellow Marigold plants were also purchased, but there were no Vinca plants.  It's taken a while for these seeds to prosper, but the flowers are now popping out!

We are enjoying them!

 

Bright Colors!

It's a beautiful September evening!  Walking up our driveway a group of many brightly colored Zinnias greet us on the right hand side.  The reds, the yellows, the pinks and the oranges are just beautiful!

This is also a reminder to me to save the seeds from this year's crop.  These Zinnias were grown from saved seeds harvested from last year.

Soon, it will be time.  For now, we are enjoying the bright colored flowers!!

Enjoy!

    

Just Need to Wait

A Dahlia is Blossoming!!!

The Dahlia bulbs in our front garden were planted this spring.  We planted bulbs saved from last year & also bulbs purchased this spring.  The saved bulbs would have coral colored flowers & the newer bulbs- pink flowers.  The coral Dahlia have added color to our garden for the past month. 

How exciting to see the green sprouts appear & leaves form from the pink Dahlia bulbs.  Then, there was the "watch the plants become taller" time period.  One day buds appeared on the tall stalks.  When would they blossom???  That was the question.

Today, August 28th, a beautiful flower opened! The anticipation is over!  Yes!  There are more buds to follow.

We will Enjoy!

     

Colors of August

Our Colorful Greeting in Our Front Yard

Those little Zinnia seeds that we planted from saved seeds this Spring have added brilliant colors to our yard this summer.  It's August & those colorful flowers along with the flowering Vinca keep blossoming!

Marigolds, Zinnias & Grasses

The bright Marigolds add a colorful border to the Zinnias in our side perennial garden.

It's definitely August!

Enjoy!

~Colors During Our Heat Wave~

Salmon Daylily

"Ahhh!"  It was a moment of enjoy it now before it is gone!  Yesterday, there were 2 Salmon Daylilies blossoming in our front garden.  They were our last 2 Daylilies of the year.  What a great crop bursting open every morning.  Even during the heat wave of the past 8 days, the garden was bursting with color!

At the same time our side garden is filled with colorful Zinnias!  They grew from seeds saved from last year's colorful crop. 

Zinnias planted with seeds saved from last year's crop!

It's so bright outdoors.  What color these flowers have added to our yard on these days of intense heat!

Enjoy!