Zinnia-O-Rama

If you regularly drive along Rock Harbor Road in Orleans (as I do), it will be no surprise to you to hear of the small cottage at the edge of the marsh...the one with the spectacular garden.

There are bulbs galore in spring, and then brilliant peonies to dress the road as summer begins. As the season goes on, there's a cloud of cosmos about the mailbox and a hedge along the edge of the road, made up of cannas, tomatoes and hundreds of zinnias.

Every day I drive by and admire these beauties. I always mean to stop, but there's often traffic behind me, or some imperative for continuing on to work. But today I had a few minutes to spare, the day was lovely and there wasn't another car on the road.

I had no zinnia success to boast of this year in my own garden this year. Just some seedlings which were overgrown by neighboring plants and never amounted to much. So it was fun to take a few moments to revel in these!

I'm afraid I may have done these two gardeners a disservice by waiting so late in the season to stop for a few snaps. Delightful as they are, zinnias are also prone to mildew, some of which is visible here.

But hey, I am only singing their praises for planting them in the first place, and for giving us such a festival of color to enjoy here, on October 2nd, when so many other plants appear to have lost their drive.

One of the things about the end of the season is the business of reviewing where you've succeeded...but also where you've fallen a little short. Looking at these guys, I know that one of my goals for next season (depending on what sort of gardening is available to me then...), will be to find a sunny patch and make a little zinnia magic.