Matching Colors

The lilies of the field are now only the late asters-purple, blue, or white- and perhaps a stray Showy goldenrod.

But in the garden, where frost has yet to visit, we have colors to match the leaves.

These zinnias are a mixture of the common Cut and Cut Again variety and the “Lime Queen” series. They are not as subtle as the Japanese anemones in the background. They are not sophisticated flowers. But a child can grow them from a packet, even on stony sandy dry Yankee ground fit only for low blueberries. Their colors are not those of the demure dresses of Puritan ladies, but of the bright skirts and scarves of Bohemian immigrants.

There are cold nights coming this weekend, but perhaps the zinnias will fare better up here at eight hundred feet than they might down in the valley of the Merrimack.