Flower Talk

I’m not a great flower grower. I know little to nothing about flowers, and I don’t care to take the time to learn. So flowers, for me, are mostly random experiments with very few successes. Plus, sometimes it’s nice to try something without knowing all the rules because then you don’t have to live by them! 

(Don’t let my kids catch on to that mentality).

Last year in my garden I planted (I think) zinnias from seed. They ended up being about three feet tall. I never thought zinnias were that tall. They were pretty much my greatest flower triumph of all time. That got me feeling confident.

Last year’s zinnias

This year, I planted zinnias (I think) from starts, planning on them getting three feet tall, but they are just a few inches off the ground.

This year’s zinnias

I always plant marigolds by my tomatoes. I don’t know if this really helps the tomatoes or not, but I enjoy the little pop of color, so I continue planting them. 

You can’t see any tomatoes, but they’re in there somewhere

This year I tried planting marigolds from seed, but only a few grew. They are now two feet tall. I’ve never seen two-foot tall marigolds, and they haven’t bloomed yet, so I’m not sure what’s coming!

I’ve been anticipating the blooms for a week now, and I check every day, but so far this is it!

What will you be, my little mystery flower?

Speaking of tomatoes, tonight I picked my first cherry tomato! Sadly, I’m the only one who will eat them.

This spring I tried growing dahlias from seed. This is what I got…

That is not what dahlias look like on the internet! But my distant relative told me that dahlias from seed take a few years to start blooming well. I didn’t even know I planted perennials. Maybe next year I’ll have an accidental dahlia field (please bless! I’ll take that over my current mint farm, although I love the way the mint smells!)

Side note: the mint reigns supreme! Every few weeks, I let Eva cut down a bunch of mint to make a salad for the chickens. Tonight she made them a salad with mint and other herbs that needed cutting back as well as some peppers and squash that we haven’t been able to eat. I had to laugh at her choice of serving dish.

Back to flower talk…

I plant sunflowers every year because they’re practically weeds, so that means I can actually grow them!

My favorites are a mixture of yellows and reds. I prefer thinner stems and a height of about 4’. I thought that’s what I bought this year, and yet…

The first one bloomed today, and it’s way up there!

Side note: we had a beautiful rainstorm this evening that was just what I needed! I sat outside for about three hours just enjoying the mild temperatures and the gloom in the sky. It was so refreshing!

But back to sunflowers!

I think this one grew on accident in the strawberry box. I don’t think I planted it there. Plus it doesn’t match the other ones that I really did plant. This is more the height and width I planned on. I think it migrated from the neighbor’s yard.

At my grandma’s funeral earlier this year, my little cousins handed out packets of flower seeds to plant in memory of my grandma. I assumed they were forget-me-nots (they weren’t labeled). I planted a bunch of them in our gargoyle thrones, threw my hands up to heaven, and said, “Okay, Grandma, it’s up to you!” I figured either A) nothing would grow because my grandma is stubborn or B) they would all go wild because my grandma is stubborn. I got mostly A. Just a few random flowers. They aren’t forget-me-nots. They are an assortment of (I think) wildflowers, and since they are weed-adjacent, I should be better at growing them.

When it comes to growing flowers, I just never know what I’m going to get!