Visitors welcome

In years’ past, I’ve always purchased flats of petunias, snapdragons, mossflowers or anything else that catches my eye to plant in my flowerpots on the back deck. This year, I planted flowers from seed, as part of my insistence on frugal gardening. I bought a packet of giant zinnia seeds from Bookcliff Gardens, even though I’ve never been a flower gardener and couldn’t have told you what a zinnia looked like.

I love the way they look in my flowerpots. Very bright, summery and huge, which is good because some of the other flower seeds I planted didn’t come up.

Even better, they’ve attracted visitors:

The hummingbirds visit throughout the day, giving us something to watch out our kitchen window. I think I like it better than a hummingbird feeder.
 

One last thought about hummingbirds. I interviewed someone from the Audubon Society for a story a month or two ago, and just because I was curious and figured she'd know the answer, I asked her where my backyard hummingbirds go in the winter. She said most of them go to Central America. Whew! No wonder they spend the entire summer sipping zinnia juice from my flowers. That's a lot of flapping for such itty bitty wings.