Knitionary: flowers

A walk through the zinnias

If you love zinnias as much as I do, then this is your post! It's packed with pictures of the new varieties I planted this year and I'll share my honest opinions. This was an exciting year for zinnia lovers because this old fashioned flower has been getting a lot of attention. Roses have always been the darlings of breeders, and in recent decades both peonies and dahlias have received a lot of attention, but recently breeders have settled onto the humble zinnia. I have been following along like a fangirl and as a long time zinnia lover I found all this terribly exciting. This year I grew some of the newest varieties and I invite you to read on to find out what I loved and didn't love.

August 01, 2024
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holy city hat

flowers

Hello! Just popping in with a quick post to show a new colorful hat pattern that uses the terrifically fun mosaic colorwork technique. The pattern is just out today and uses light fingering weight yarn and is perfect for stash diving. I let my 4 year old grandson pick the colors from my stash and think he did a good job, and while I never would have gone this bold and bright, I do love them as combined they are supposed to resemble stained glass. The fun pattern comes in SEVEN sizes and is well written by a very lovely woman and a designer to watch.

Holy City Hat by Claire Theobald

My Ravelry project page

And before summer completely leaves us in a mere 7 days, I thought I should post pictures of my pretty flower border that is (still) chock full of gorgeous zinnias. I start all my zinnias by seed in my greenhouse in late winter. Starting by seed allows for the best variety. I get my seeds from different sources and already have a few packets of new-to-me zinnia varieties that I will try out next year. The seed catalogs start to come out in January and is something to look forward to after the holidays are over.

This bouquet shows the gorgeous faded quilt colors of the Queen Lime Series of zinnia.
There are three colors in the series and I have all three: Queen Lime, QL Red, and QL Orange.
These are my favorite zinnias.

At the front of the border I have Pinwheel zinnias. They are prolific bloomers and
are only 12" tall. I have them in orange and cherry.

Queen Lime Zinnias in lime, red and orange

Cherry Pinwheel Zinnia

hello gorgeous

By mid summer the zinnias have come to their full beauty.
Pink hydrangeas are in the background.

White Shasta Daisies in the forefront. This picture and the following picture was
taken early in summer, before the zinnias really took off!

But there is room in my flower border for other zinnia varieties as well.

Below you can see some Fruit Bowl and State Fair Zinnias.

State Fair Zinnias

State Fair Zinnia

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September 14, 2021
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our new dahlia patch

flower arranging

Before summer slips away I thought I'd share one of our recent garden projects, our new dahlia bed. We have a patch of dirt in a mostly unvisited part of our side yard. It's usually out of sight out of mind with this dirt patch and over the years it had been an artichoke patch (never produced enough to keep) an herb garden (too far away from the kitchen door) and lastly a home for old roses. When we replaced an old rose, we relocated it here and let them live out the remainder of their lives in peace. But last winter when I was pouring through an online dahlia catalog an idea came to me to use this patch for something really fun. I asked my gardeners to dig out the old roses and prepare the soil, then my husband installed a simple low waste watering system and I ordered 25 tubers, plus dug up a dozen tubers from our flower border. I then got to planting and labeling and waited for that beautiful first bloom. It has been so fun to check it out each morning, cup of coffee in one hand and my flower shears in the other. Dahlia blooms have really given a boost to my flower arrangements this summer!

Dahlias bloom from mid summer through early fall, die back in winter and because they are tubers, and if your ground freezes, they must be dug up and safely stored. Our ground does not freeze and we can let the tubers sleep all winter long in the ground. Dahlias will continue to bloom throughout the fall and get bigger every year.

Floret Dahlias is the gold standard for purchasing dahlia bulbs here in the US. They sell out quickly, as do their seeds. There are gorgeous dahlia gardens around the world and this is the time to visit them. We have quite a famous dahlia garden in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Buchart Gardens in Canada has a fabulous dahlia border that we visited a decade ago. I remember my husband having to drag me away.

I know this is a knitting blog and I promise I have some knitting posts to come. My garden seems to hijack my blog every summer and I hope you enjoy reading about my passion for gardening as much as I love sharing it. Until next time, take care my friends. xo Kristen

If you'd like to make a comment, please click here or scroll down. I reply to each comment and that reply will appear directly below your comment. If you would like a personal reply, please know that I use the Blogger platform and they do not give me your contact information when you comment. If you would like a personal reply you can contact me using the contact form on the right side at the very end of my website. If you would like to receive Knitionary posts by email, please subscribe here.

August 23, 2021
21 Comments

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A walk through the zinnias

holy city hat

our new dahlia patch