Garden Glimpses: 06.20.25
solstice | zinnias | dahlia update
Happy Solstice! The longest day of the year has arrived. Different cultures around the world celebrate with bonfires, feasting, and dancing. I’m trying to convince my husband to watch the movie Midsomar with me tonight, a horror riff on the solstice festival. I think he’d prefer simple feasting or a bonfire as horror isn’t his favorite genre, but we’ll see.
Today also has the potential to be the first day without rainfall in a week or so. Still a chance of afternoon storms, but less so today. The amount of rainfall has been incredible. Every time I pour out my rain gauge, it’s been an inch or two from these daily, torrential thunderstorms. Everything is soggy.
Spotlight: Zinnias
It’s truly summer when the zinnias start coming in! They thrive in these long, hot days, and thankfully haven’t minded the daily deluge.
This year I’m growing a few different types of zinnias. The peachy ombré called Aurora is a new offering from Johnny’s seeds. It radiates a warm glow from the flower center outward. The blooms are huge, approaching 5 inches across! Completely beautiful.
There’s a recent trend with growers breeding specialty types of zinnias in new color palettes. They’re gorgeous, but companies are charging up to $20 for a seed pack, which I think is too much. Aurora has bloomed just as pretty as the designer types at a more reasonable price. Highly recommend.
The other varieties I’m growing are Benary’s Giants and Oklahoma mixes. Benary’s Giants are standard zinnia for cutting with big blooms and long stems. I’ve grown these the last few years and they’re incredibly reliable. Oklahoma is a smaller ruffled type that is new to me, but I am loving their little cupcake shape. They mix in well with other flowers in arrangements.
Zinnias only take a couple months to go from seed to flower, so if you don’t already have some in your garden, there’s still plenty of time to scatter some seed!
The Dahlia Experiment Continues
There’s definitely a learning curve growing dahlias. They’re hungry things that like a lot of nutrition and moisture, but in the right amounts. They often wilt for reasons I have yet to figure out. It’s not lack of water! I dug one up to investigate and I believe it was starting to rot, so I re-planted it in a container for better drainage and we’ll see if it recovers.
The first “fancy dahlia” started blooming; Creme de Cognac has perfect symmetry and coppery maroon petals. It has a fall feel, so I’m not quite sure what to pair it with in a summer bouquet. Though, it does look nice on its own in a bud vase.
The yellow dahlia continues to bloom and looks fantastic paired with the little white Oklahoma zinnias. I’m learning that dahlias like to be the star of the show and arranging them is mostly figuring out how to let them shine.
Bouquet of the Week
The Aurora zinnias are carrying this one with a little help from yarrow, baptisia greenery, and coral bell flower spikes. I can’t seem to get rid of yarrow in the garden after growing it a couple years ago, but it’s coming up in colors that perfectly complement the zinnias which is fun.
I loved this bouquet so much that I shared it on a Facebook Zinnia group and she got over 600 likes, which tickled me. Everyone seems to love zinnias.
Till next time - Peace!
Ashley