Why do I grow flowers?

Why do I grow flowers? I get this question a lot from people: mainly those that think that growing flowers is a waste of space and time and energy. I don't think that way obviously.

. (A zinnia in my kids' pollinators garden)

I do actually grow herbs and vegetables every year along with my flowers but the flowers are my true passion. I have nothing against growing only vegetables. My dad loves to grow vegetables and that is his passion and I understand that. (In fact, I already purchased his Christmas present for him . . . something to do with his garden.)

. (A native aster which supports bees and butterflies late in the season when not much else is blooming.)

I digress. Anyway I grow flowers because when I had postpartum depression it was one of the only things that made me excited and want to live. I grow flowers because it gives me goals and because looking at a new flower bloom makes that part of my heart open up and live again. I grow flowers because it makes me happy. I love the surprises that new flowers blooming bring.

(Roses have a wonderful fragrance and make good cutflowers to bring inside.)

There are practical reasons to grow flowers too. Flowers attract pollinators and other beneficial insects and some flowers such as marigolds and alliums have other protective properties for your vegetables. Flowers also make for beautiful bouquets to bring inside and brighten your house. Flowers bring wonderful scents to drift into your open windows in the summer. Some of them have medicinal value such as lavender and chamomile and some are edible like nasturtium. I hope this inspires you to plant some flowers next spring.

(A beautiful edible nasturtium)

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A few fun varieties. . .

I found a few fun varieties of flowers to grow next year that were not on my list to buy. They seemed so interesting that I bought them anyway. #1 A beautifully pink sunflower #2 Something fragrant #3 The bright patterns caught my eye. #4 What can I say? I'm a sucker for purple. . . #5 This one was on sale. . . That's it for now but I haven't finished reading my copy of The Whole Seed Catalog so there may be a few more purchases between now and spring. After all my Dad could use some more vegetable seeds. . .

Nasturtium salad

Nasturtium is a delicious edible flower. In fact not only is the flower edible, the whole plant is edible. The leaves, stems, seeds and flowers are all tasty. The leaves and flowers are peppery tasting and taste great in salad. I made a simple nasturtium salad. My recipe is: 2 cups washed nasturtium flowers 1 cup baby spinach leaves 1 cup washed nasturtium leaves 1/2cup chopped carrots (I used the last of the carrots from my garden.) 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes Dressing of your choice (I used Catalina.) That's all I added and it tasted great with Catalina dressing but you can add more add-ins like: Mushrooms Feta cheese Radish Swiss chard Sunflower seeds Chicken chunks Bacon Etc. I hope you have the courage to try to grow and eat this beautiful plant next year.

Plans for next season and beyond

I have started planning for next year already. If all goes to plan, I will have 3 separate dahlia patches in 3 separate locations. I am planning on working on collarettes, anemones and other open centered varieties at two other locations. My closed centered varieties such as the KA varieties that I have purchased will be growing at my house. I will also be growing some seedlings at my house. These are seedlings that are more likely to be close centered and from seeds I collected this year. Closed centered dahlia Makayla Miranda I am working on two separate zinnia breeding projects. Project one includes using some genetics from Floret's Unicorn zinnias and some other purple genetics to hopefully come up with something beautiful and unique. Project number two is going to be an attempted cross between two different zinnia species which may or may not work out the way I want it to. . .stay tuned over the next year to see if the beginning stages turn out the w...

Briar Lane Flowers

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