Oh, seed companies, books and contemporary institutions all aim for testing, quality control and uniformity, but these zinnias, with seed randomly selected for over thirty years now …

… know a thing or two about how to get along, each one in its own way.

Every one is beautiful.

But differently!

They are beautiful even when they extend their season past summer.

Double blooms, single blooms, high cones, low cones, it matters not.

Pretty good for my front lawn that is really a bee garden, eh.

Pretty great job the zinnias are doing.

Every one! Shade, sun, it doesn’t matter.

This is important, because out of all of these flowers, and more, there is one that has been harbouring a beetle for weeks now: one that is just right for that. Can you spot it? The others have been doing different work. This one below, which you’ve seen already, has been helping a stink bug along.

And this one (below) a crab spider. Can you spot it?

The future depends upon having them all…

… in reaction to changing conditions…

… and changing length of season. (And each petal becomes a seed.)