This Friday flower is Zinnia. This summer beauty can take the heat of full sun and all it needs is water and occasional feeding - we like Neptune's Harvest. The large blooms will pop out from all angles and draw the pollinators into my deck garden. They get a little zinnia nectar and make stops at the tomato & peppers!
This year I'm growing lavender, green, red & pink zinnias (I forgot about orange!) So far the lavender and red are gigantic and gorgeous. I'm hoping that the ones I planted in the ground out-front will do as well as the deck flowers.
So far we've seen bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and finches dine on the zinnias. The finches can be a bit tough on the zinnias, but as long as they don't devour all the blooms I'll allow them to snack.
The zinnias in my garden will be going strong come September - which is more than I can say about the pansies and violas in my window-box, they need to be laid to rest in the compost bins! Perhaps I'll find some zinnia plants at the farmers market this weekend to replace the spring blooms that are fading.
Do you have a fav flower in the garden?