This sweet little posy of zinnias was all the nicer for being a gift from Jim Rosenblatt. His official title may be Dean Emeritus of The Mississippi College School of Law, but he wears the unofficial title of Plant Enthusiast with the same self-depreciation and benevolent good nature.
Several years ago, he created a cutting / kitchen garden in an unused corner of the faculty’s parking lot. The soil is rich and crumbly now, after years of being tended, making the plot very productive. These zinnias were freshly gathered from there.
I wonder how many other people have benefitted from gifts of peppers, tomatoes, herbs and flowers from his car park plot? Many more will have their day brightened by spotting this city centre garden as they passed.
In a nod to Krista’s weekly photo challenge: experimental, I’ve added a process filter effect to the picture to give a nostalgic feel to these, surely among the most traditional of all annual flowers.
If you missed my recent post on annuals, you can read it here.
Susan Rushton 
Lovely!
He brought us rosemary too, which went into vegetable soup.
A bouquet of happiness, for sure!
… and it’s extra nice to be able to share it here 🙂
If ever there were an argument for annuals, zinnias would be it. And if ever there were an argument for a parking lot, it would be the corners that might be gardens. What a great thing to do!
Hear, hear!
What a lovely idea and what a lovely person he sounds.
He is very nice.
These are lovely, and i”m so impressed with your friend’s cool garden.
It even has a scarecrow.
Just shows how beauty and goodness can come from unexpected places.
Gardens could be squeezed into lots of places we never seem to consider – we just need forward-thinking people to show us how.
Zinnias look like the flowers that Mickey Mouse picks from the porch to give to Minnie Mouse. We used to know them as posies.
They are classic flowers, I agree.
My zinnias are gone until next year. Glad to know they’re still blooming in Mississippi! What great flowers they are! And kudos to the car park gardener. People just want a little place to grow things–and such pleasure it gives.
We’ve been to visit the car park garden several years running but this year it was the best we’ve seen it.
Even car park gardens have good and bad years!!
Beautiful!
I’m glad you liked them too.
One of my favourite flowers .. they get planted in the veg garden every year 🙂
Are they the kind of annuals you need to cut to keep them flowering, like sweet peas?
Yes .. but I can’t cut them! I just love seeing them growing with the veg 😃 ! Silly ah
I love zinnias. And I love the concept of a help yourself garden. There are help yourself herbs in our nearby town.
Herbs are perfectly suited to being help yourself plants aren’t they? One decent-sized rosemary plant could shared by a large community, all year round, provided they nipped off just the amount they were going to use. I frequently take a leaf or two from my Mum’s huge plant on my way past it, just to be uplifted by the scent. That’s herbal use, in a way!