Today, a little story about what flowers are up to when I’m not watching. I thought I’d plant some cosmos, in memory of ones I had in a big garden under a walnut tree when I was a young man.

Not just white, but pink, too.

All summer, bees have come to them. Wondrous bees, like none I have seen before. I have saved two cups worth of seeds so far, for a bee program next spring. I’m sure the flowers will be glad, but that’s not all that’s been going on here. Have a look at the self-seeded sunflower. Every year it seeds itself, from some bird seed scattered before 2011, when I moved here. This year it grew about 10 feet tall.

Not that you’d know it, though, because it fell over in the wind. Well, no, not just the wind, but the vetch, a weed in these parts got a hold of it and pulled it down, even while the cosmos grew crazy tall. But was that the end of things? Nope! The combination of ropy vetch and tall, branching stalks of the cosmos did the trick and held that sunflower up just fine. It all cleared a little room for a zinnia to get out of the mess, too!

So, those branches on a black oil sunflower make considerable sense.

And who was under this tent this afternoon? A quail! The first one in the back yard since I yanked the junipers out to make room for tomatoes. Quail need shelter, and these flowers managed it. Good job, ladies!