Pastel Zinnias

I treated myself to a few new zinnia's at today's farmers' market. The velvety yellow flower in the back is celosias. I don't know the name of the lavender flower.

Zinnias, Zinnias, and Zinnias

Finally. In focus.

More Zinnias

I love the diversity of zinnias. Check out the pale one at the top -- the petals range from creme to orchid, the centers are pink ringed by tiny yellow flower-like components.

Zinnia and Celosias

This is the remains of last weekend's bouquet. The two velvety maroon flowers in the back have many names: Celosias, cock's comb, wool flower, and brain celosias. (They really do look like the convoluted folds of the brain.) I call it Marie's flower because  Marie, my best friend's mother,  grew them in her garden. Their color matched the velvety rocker in the living room.

According to this source, in the language of flowers, celosias symbolizes humor, warth, and silliness -- all of which, are aspects of Marie's personality. I was so lucky to be able to stay at her home some afternoons when my mom was working. To this day, Marie laughs easily and uses humor to cope with life's trials. She has a lot to teach us all!

The two-tone flower is a Gaillardia, a member of the sunflower family.

Zinnia and Friends

This is a bouquet I put together at the farmers' market on Saturday, selecting from a collection of loose flowers.  The cloth is a Kaffe Fassett ikat. It's a big mint green square with pale orchid dots created with the ikat method. I hope to one day either fringe the two cut edges or hem them; the selvage edges are fine as is.

Z Is For Zinnia

I love the vivid color of zinnias. It's their dry papery petals that leave me ambivalent. I also love their hardiness.