Nothing Says Country More Than a Garden of Zinnias

This year, I added more space allocated to growing cut flowers.   I am guilty of this fact, that I may spend $10 on a bouquet of flowers, but I will pass up of 2 baskets of something for the price of one at a market.  People just LOVE flowers!!!  I do too, I just can't have enough of flowers around me at all times, in my house gardens, in my vegetable gardens, in my home.

At the beginning and end of each of my vegetable rows, I plant flowers.  In between my vegetable rows, I plant flowers.

But I am really excited about my added patch of rows of cutting flowers.  I want to sell flowers this year for special occasions; for parties; for events, wherever someone needs flowers.  Not just any flowers, but "country style" flowers and nothing says country more, in my mind, than a bunch of zinnias. 

What is interesting is all the different types of zinnias.  Did you know they bloom in every color EXCEPT blue?  They come in short and tall varieties; have single, double or dahlia pedals. Zinnias have short condensed pedals or larger - in your face pedals.

The small zinnias in a bouquet look great on the bathroom vanity, on your night stand, next to the kitchen sink.  The large, bold, long stemmed ones look great anyplace and they all last for a long time as long as you trim the bottom stems and change the water occasionally.

I have found that I can grow the plants very well from seed.  You don't need to pay a large amount of $$$ for a single plant or a 6 pack.  One small package of seeds will go a long way and they germinate very quickly, love full sun and grow under lots of different soil conditions.  Sometimes the very tall ones do need a bit of staking but if you do some other transitional planting of flowers in front of them of smaller graduating heights, that normally can do the trick of holding them up.

There are these new colors out, I planted a few last year.  The seeds were a little pricey but the lime green with pink in the middle were so special.
So start your own country garden, plant a few zinnias and you will enjoy them all summer long and into the fall.  The more you cut, the more they make new ones.  But if you don't want to grow your own or don't have the space to do it, you can always call a farmer like myself and buy directly from the farm your own Country Bouquet!!!