When you have a really small garden, like I do, every little flower bud gets noticed. And the second a bud gets noticed, the “Great Expectations” wait begins. I know the old saying is “a watched pot never boils,” but I swear it could just as easily be, “a watched bud never opens.” I have been staring at these Persian Carpet Zinnias buds for what seems like FOREVER. And of course, nature having the sense of humor that she does, the flower opened this weekend when it was raining here and I couldn’t fully enjoy it.
Now the wait is on for the rest of the Zinnias to bloom so I can see the other colors (‘Persian Carpet’ is a mix of single color and multi colored Zinnias in rusty/autumn shades) and for these darn ‘Plains’ Coreopsis to open up.
Remember those Mervyn’s commercials where the crazy sale ladies sat at the door and whispered “open, open, open?” Yeah. That’s me. Only I am doing it from my own window looking out at my pots.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Love the zinnias — they’re an annual favorite with me, mostly for the assortment of vivid colors.
I need to hurry up and learn patience! I have planted several seeds and each day I go out and look to see if they are coming up. Sometimes I think I imagine I see some activity, and no, it’s just dirt. Then I get all excited because I see a sprout, no it’s just a weed…then finally, I see several sprouts trying to break through to the sunshine..I look to make sure, go back inside to work awhile and come back out to see again and there they are! Little wonderful sprouts. It’s like watching a chick hatch, you want to help so bad, but you know if you do, you could harm the newborn…same with my new little sprouts, I want to help them rid the shell, but I know if I do, I could pull up the little sprout. So sit and watch, and with patience everything comes up!
Nancy — Zinnias are some of my favorites!
Ramona — Heh. We’ve all been there. And I know for a fact that “helping” a seedling is more detrimental than helpful. I recently tried to pull off a seed shell that was stuck to a newly sprouted plant and I decapitated it instead! DOH!!!
We have a couple sickly tomato plants on our balcony. They don’t get quite enough light to be vibrant, but I hover over their each bloom, waiting to see if it will survive or fall off. At the moment, 11 cherry tomatoes and 1 regular tomato are in the works!
Lizzy — Congrats on those tomatoes! Growing edibles on a balcony can be difficult for exactly the reason you mentioned. You must be doing a great job if you’ve coaxed a tomato plant to set fruit in low light conditions!
You’re lucky you can do Zinnias – it’s so damp and cool here that they just rot in weeks. I’ve always coveted them, though.
I’ve been watching and waiting for my corn to finish – alas, I planted too late this year – my corn’s only fit for the chickens to eat.