Why I Oughta...

I let the various Zinnias that are in the vertical garden (Greenstalk) go for a bit longer than I likely should have in terms of cutting and ended up with dozens of them all at the same time.  The mass of stems is as thick as a Big Gulp from 7-11, so I ended up using a large, wide-base ceramic vase to hold them all and keep it from tipping over.  Besides bringing in some hydrangeas, I'd say that this is the largest arrangement of the 2025 growing season. 

The bulk of my flower arrangements have been focused on the flowers + some additional foliage plants.  Zinnias + ferns + artemeisa.  Dahlias + artemesia + polka dot plants.  For the most part, I was dealing with shorter-length stems on the 'stars' (Zinnias and Dahlias) and that meant that I was stripping just a few leaves from the stems and filling out the arrangement with those other foliage elements. But, thanks to my FYP, I've been getting served "here's how to get longer stem" videos and the secret isn't...well...it isn't a secret.  It is just doing something that is hard:  Cutting deep.   Why is cutting deep hard?  Because you're sacrificing some flower blooms.  To get the longer stems, you often take out up-to-three flowers.  Typically that means one full-formed and open that has shot up through the middle of the stem.  Then, two smaller, further-behind ones on either side.   I've always hesitated to sacrifice those ...

Cut flower season continues with Zinnias of all colors and shapes and sizes.  I grew these from seed and grew (what I thought) was three varieties:  Envy, State Fair and Cut and Come Again.  And planted them up in my vertical garden .  These are growing on long stems and look good in a vase. Mixed in, amongst the straight varieties appears to be a variegated one.  Earlier this year, I bought Candy Cane Zinnia seeds , but opted to not grow them (based on what I read).  But, did one of those seeds slip into one of my other seed packages?  I think it might have: Cut flower summer continues.  

The flats of Zinnias that I planted from seed have been hanging around on our patio for weeks.  Ready to pot-up into their final destination.   I grew three varieties this year - Envy, State Fair and Cut-and-Come-Again in eight-cell recycled containers that I scavenged from some annuals.  I was waiting for the Zinnias to put on multiple sets of 'real leaves' before transplanting them, but then I got busy and probably waited to long.  Here are some photos of the process - from cells to Greenstalk vertical garden.  This is a tiny example of "Flower Farming" in a small space with vertical gardening beds. Last year, I grew a number of Zinnias in this Greenstalk successfully .  This year, I'm leaning into it way more.  They started to bloom in late August last year - after being direct sown.   This post is going up in July, but this process happened at the end of June.  This is about two weeks ago.    I added in some new potti...

Last year, I direct-sowed zinnia seeds into the cut flower bed in our sideyard and into the vertical tower on our patio.  And...it...well...worked.  We grew Zinnias.  But, this year I wanted to get them started a little bit earlier (not as early as I should have, though...) and decided to start some seeds indoors.   I showed the three varieties of seeds we bought this year - earlier this winter/spring;  Envy , State Fair and Cut and Come Again.    I had some eight-cell packs on-hand from annuals that I put out front, so I filled those with a potting mix and tucked seeds into each cell.   Pretty quickly, most of them germinated.   I kept the seedlings in the screened porch and they started to grow up and get taller.   In an attempt to keep them from getting too-leggy, I moved them outdoors as often as I could - weather-permitting.  Below is a photo showing the two trays out on the patio - where they live all day...

Last year, I direct sowed a couple packets of Zinnia seeds in both the sideyard cut flower bed and in the vertical garden (Greenstalk) and they produced a good number of cut flowers for bouquets.  I used the variety named "Cut and Come Again" and they lived up to their name.    They produced a variety of colors - pinks, reds and more .    That (direct sow) experience has lead me to think that I *might* be able to do even MORE with Zinnias this year.  I'm going to try even more packets this growing season and I picked up some new (to me) varieties this past weekend.   The first one of the bunch is below - named "State Fair Zinnias" - they're larger than the ones I grew last season. Below is the front/back of the seed packet from Burpee: From Burpee's site : This one is a sure winner. State Fair Mix has jumbo 5" flowers, a wide range of colors and tall, robust plants. Colors include red, yellow, orange, purple, pink, white and bicolors. Disease res...