Zinnia Blaze

It's as if the St. Clare Healing Garden has been ablaze with zinnias this growing season.  Huge swaths of these cheery flowers were planted at the garden's entrances in hot pink, rosy red, brilliant orange, a hint of sunshiny yellow and a random, stray white one tossed into the mix.  Early one recent morning, I was reading from Stillmeadow Sampler by Gladys Taber when I came upon a page where the author commented on zinnias:  "And now zinnias are in their dazzling colors.  They seem to be afire."  It was with great relief to have had such a riot of color from our bold and beautiful zinnias for months and months, especially given the desolate, drought-stressed summer.  The zinnias will soon fade, replaced by the brilliant colors of fall mums and the more subtle, though equally magnificent, ornamental kale.  But, for a summer that was more brown than green, I thank our zinnias for giving us much-appreciated color.