Out my kitchen window

When it's hotter than blazes and mosquitoes are a biting, do you question just why you are gardening? I do.

Then the next day, the morning is cool, a breeze comes up and as I look at my flowers out my kitchen window or prepare a pitcher of cucumber water, it's all worth the sweating and bites. Well, the bites are questionable.

Looking at the flowers out the window and mornings on the patio are my favorite. The morning light just seems to make the flowers show off. We all enjoy our flowers and vegetable gardens from a special viewing point.

Zinnias are showing off in the July heat. The zinnias were planted a bit later this year and they are now popping with color.

Looking at a row of them in the garden always makes me smile. They appear to be a simple, colorful, fun flower. They can be dressed up in a fancy vase and combined with other flowers or greenery as they sit on an elegant table or just slipped into a jar or bottle and sat on a pretty little country-style table topper or even a cloth napkin. No matter what you do with them or the color of the flower, zinnias are a winner.

There are small flowers, large flowers, tall plants, medium and shorter ones. The colors are endless. There are even zinnias that appear to be doubles.

Zinnias don't have very many predators or disease factors. Their color really pops in any outdoor or indoor setting.

Another great quality of the flower is that the seeds are easy to harvest by clipping their blooms and drying them. Then just hand shred the dried flowers heads apart, store them in a container in a dry, dark environment until the next spring and start the cycle all over again.

Open pollinated zinnias work well for saving as hybrid zinnias do not necessarily return as their true color of flower.

I've shared before that one of my favorite zinnia varieties is Dreamland. I've also found another variety that I've incorporated into the garden, the Queeny series.

I've grown very fond of them in bouquets.

I was recently gifted with a glass vase in a gold/amber color that will be perfect for fall-colored arrangements. I can visualize the Queeny zinnias in the vase making an interesting color combination. The Red Rooster grass will be great with the vase and Queeny zinnias.

Red Rooster grass (the sedge family) has shoots of copper-bronze foliage. I grow it as an annual but have read it can be perennial and is drought tolerant. It's a great addition to the fall garden.

The Queeny zinnias' colors are fun and include lemon peach, lime orange, lime red and lime with blotch. Those colors make me think of a dish of sherbet.

Sherbet, now that's another fun summer idea. Sitting on the patio on a summer evening with friends and a bouquet of zinnias on the table, bowls of sherbet and a few of those wafer cookies, it can't get much better.

Zinnias make me smile as I look out my kitchen window. Here's hoping your warm summer days are as relaxed as a pretty zinnia and a bowl of sherbet.