HZ, "I had never used PhotoBucket because I understood that I would need a digital camera, and then I had been told by our librarian that I could not bring the card from a camera here to use on the computer because "that is how viruses destroy everything that our county has tried to provide". Let's see what I've learned without destroying anything:" Apparently your phone takes some very small pictures. The picture you have linked to is only 160 x 120 pixels. That is not very big. I experimented with increasing your picture size some but, as you can see, the result is rather blurry. There isn't a lot of image detail in a 160 x 120 pixel picture. Does your phone have an option to take larger pictures? I'm not criticizing your phone pictures. Please, do continue to share them. But since you are a gardener who appreciates flowers, in my opinion you would enjoy an entry level digital camera. And, when you get your own computer, you would enjoy an entry level picture editor, like Adobe Photoshop Elements. In the meantime, your phone and the library computer seem like an excellent enhancement to your ability to communicate about your zinnias. Your flower does seem to have become a bicolor, or was a bicolor to start with. The effect looks good. Actually, with that petal shape and the light color at the base of the petals, your zinnia kind of reminds me of a rose. Do you happen to know what variety of zinnia it is? I have to wonder why your librarian thinks your phone pictures might somehow transmit a virus to the library computer. I don't know anything about computer viruses, but I never heard of one starting in a phone picture. But our digital world does have its marvels, so maybe it would be possible, somehow. MM

I took this pic in Ulster County, NY, this weekend. I was joking on FB about it looking like a "Mr. Snuffaluffagus'" Vine (Sesame Street reference for those of you my age), and a friend of mine said it was Poison Ivy. I thought he was pulling my leg, and started searching and found this forum! I only knew about it growing on the ground--good thing I didn't try to act like Tarzan! Hmmmm... #themoreyouknow

Hi, I had a similiar experience this year, but I bought my seeds off EBAY and they were supposed to be California Giant which should be about 4 feet tall with 5-6 inch blooms. Instead they are about 18 inches tall with small flowers. Very disapointing as I put them in the back of the garden since I thought they would be bigger. I just figured the seller sent me the wrong seeds but who knows? I bought some other zinnia seeds from Park Seed and most of them turned out as expected (Candy mix, Zahara, and whirlygigs) but Queen Red Lime looks nothing like the picture in the catalog and I would go so far as to say they are the ugliest flower I have ever seen! Linda

Hi Alex, " How is the indoor garden going, ZM? Any especially outstanding recombinants you have to share? " My indoor garden is just getting started. I have a few seedlings getting their first true leaves, but many are just in the cotyledon stage. My plantings so far have focused on getting F2 recombinants with the Extreme Uproll feature, and a few choice exotic specimens. My further indoor plantings will look forward to what I want to accomplish next year outdoors. Next year I intend to apply some lessons learned this year. For the last few years I have been planting standardized beds 4 feet wide with four rows spaced 16 inches apart.Those rows in that picture have been recently weeded. I don't like to stoop over to weed, and kneeling is not my favorite thing either, Although sometimes kneeling is necessary in some hand weeding situations. This last year I did as much weeding as I could from a seated position using a little adjustable chair.My son avoided a lot of weeding in his tomatoes and peppers by laying down landscape cloth. That seemed to work well for him, although he found that weeds could penetrate the cheaper grade of cloth. However the 15-year cloth cost a bit more, but worked well. He grew his tomatoes and peppers in cages. Next year he is considering the use of Cattle Panels for tomato support. I will continue to use small cages for my breeder zinnia specimens.I didn't consider the use of landscape cloth in my rows, because they are so close together. For next year I am considering omitting the middle two rows and just have two rows 4 feet apart. That might make landscape cloth feasible for me, and even if I don't use the cloth, I will have better accessibility for weeding the two-row beds with 4 feet between the rows. My strategy for now is to flesh out my plans for next year's zinnia garden (including what kinds of zinnias to grow) and then use my indoor project to supply the seeds to support those plans. Your Sunflower Path and House look very inviting. Wider might be better. It looks like you have a good variety of tall sunflowers. More later. ZM