Zinnia Al Dente | A little undercooked, but growing anyway
If you’ve ever grown zinnias, I have a sneaking suspicion that you know exactly what I mean when I say “zinnia al dente”. If you haven’t, just imagine trying to grow spaghetti that’s already been boiled and you’ll get a visual for what growing zinnia in my backyard garden most often resembles.
Let me take you back to the beginning of this garden. It was mid-August. I had planted 2 rows of sunflower seeds to bloom in “Sunflower Corner”. Two weeks after the initial planting and only 4 sprouts, I sowed four more sunflower seed packets into my dry, sandy, Florida soil.
I had already staked out this area, to protect the tender sunflower stalks from the boundless energy of my pitbull, Luna. So naturally, along the front edge of the sunflower corner, I planted a delicate row of zinnias.
I watered.
I waited.
After a week, tiny, thin seedlings began to sprout. I was so excited! I had succession planted my sunflowers and zinnias like a good gardener should. At least that’s what YouTube told me.
Then the Florida sky dumped heaping amounts of rain on my little flower corner. Day after day after day.
I jumped into action with my bamboo stakes and twine and carefully constructed a weaving pattern to support the sunflowers and zinnias during these torrential rains. After completing my little engineering project, I thought that surely, my twine had saved the day.
The problem was, my zinnia looked like little piles of spaghetti, mounding on the dirt. How would these ever stand up straight and blossom into the beautiful blooms the seed packets had promised?
Fast forward to early October, the blooms arrived. Standing tall-ish. I prefer to think their curved stalks are just attributes to their whimsical nature. The zinnias did exactly what they were supposed to do. They bloomed. In their own way. In their own time.
I noticed that even with their blooms, their beauty felt short lived. I imagined seeing their beauty, swaying in a gentle breeze for weeks and maybe a month or two. These blooms reminded me that the job of a flower is to make you slow down and appreciate the beauty in that moment. To be present in the moment.
Encouraged by that, I clipped a few blooms to create windowsill arrangements. Enjoying their beauty from the comfort in my kitchen, is exactly what I needed in the moment.
When I glance at my “Sunflower Corner” and see a tangled, gimpy mess of droopy stems and blooms, I’m reminded that life doesn’t have to be picture perfect to still turn out beautiful. I couldn’t make them grow. I couldn’t make them straight. But what I could do, was give them twine. I could get in there and construct a way to give those skinny stems some support, something to lean on.
Much like life, sometimes you just need the support of a loved one to give you space and support, to hold you up like twine. That support may not save the day. But it will certainly make life easier to weather.
Good Things Are Coming…
Sometimes we need a little reminder that just because things aren't growing the way we imagined doesn't mean they aren't growing at all.
That's the heart behind my “Good Things Are Coming…” T-shirt. A simple reminder to keep planting, keep showing up, and trust that something beautiful may be growing, even when you can't quite see it yet.
[Shop the Good Things Are Coming T-shirt →]
A Little Something to Grow On
My zinnias may never win a blue ribbon at the county fair, but they've earned their place in my garden. Crooked stems, tangled twine, and all.
And maybe that's the lesson. Not everything beautiful grows straight. Not everything worth waiting for arrives on our timeline.
Sometimes good things come a little bent, a little battered, and a little al dente.
But they bloom anyway.
