Garden Pic Wednesday: Pink Zinnia

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 This week I've been working on taking-in a couple shirts I'd ordered a couple months ago. I decided I'd rather adjust them myself with my sewing machine, then dealing with all the hassle of going through the return process.
 They're classed as "big" shirts---emphasis on big. Apparently ordering my normal size for a regular shirt translates to super big in a "big" shirt.
Mental note: order medium next time.

I saw a Monarch visiting my various Zinnias today. It's hard to catch those with wings open flat. I only got a profile.
If you want a butterfly garden, Zinnias are a good choice.
I also have lots of Long Tailed Skippers visiting and even caught a nice shot of a Pearly Gray Hairstreak butterfly, which is a very small grayish-blue butterfly.
 
Today's Garden Pic is of a pink Zinnia that took on this pretty variegated pattern as a result of all the rain this summer.
The initial blooms were all plain pink. These variegated ones showed up later.

 
 
 
Next is a Pinterest photo of re-growing Romaine a stem.
 I tried this and it does work.
Whether it's worthwhile is another question.
When you buy a head of Romaine, cut the stem off about 3 inches above the stem-end.
(Too close to the stem and this won't work.)
It needs to be either level with the container you put it in or the container needs to be shorter then the lettuce, since accessing sunlight is key to it's regrowth success.
Fill container with a shallow amount of water & place stem in it and change water daily.
You'll also need to either re-wet or mist the top of the lettuce to keep it from drying out on top.
A fresh set of green leaves will grow up from the core.
However, this only works once per stem-end.
After you cut the new leaves off, dispose of the stem-end. It will only rot if you try to reuse it a second time. (I tried.)

 

While this technique does work, I have to ponder the real usefulness of it. It takes a certain amount of care and effort and you certainly don't get the same volume of Romaine on the re-growth.
 It's not exactly a full head.
I have Romaine seed, that I ordered, and I think I'd rather just grow a whole head from scratch, then do this.

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