V2202

Garden Flowers

Zinnia

Collins Cover Announcement 

SUMMER FLOWERS - ZINNIA

It is not by accident that I chose the zinnia as the first of my "Summer FlOwers" cachets to Make available. To be sure the beautiful rose, the intense marigold, the stately gladiola, and the versatile day lily which will follow are all lovely in their own fragrant right. But the colorful zinnia brings back the days of my youth.

Dad always had a big vegetable garden -- a large variety for family use but always extra sweet corn and Jersey tomatoes to sell from the front yard in our "roadside stand". This consisted of my wagon with a plank on top to provide a shelf. On many days, my brother, sister or I (or any combination thereof) would sit out there to take care of the customers. It was a grown-up thing so, of course, it was fun. Corn, tomatoes, supplemented by cucumbers and squash. (We sold zucchini when lots of people didn't know what it was.) Getting back to the story, my mother always had a large array of flower gardens. (They attracted numerous butterflies which I loved to watch.) Included was a particularly large patch of multi-colored zinnias and bouquets of these fresh-cut beauties would be offered along with the home-grown vegetables. I do think that they were the only variety of flowers we ever sold during those years so they have made a lasting impression. A few years ago Dad started raising day lilies as = retirement huain,zsc/hchl-sy and some of his customers fondly remember the zinnias.

For this small series of covers, I decided to go with close-up views of the flowers themselves. No backgrounds and no distractions. Just a full envelope of hand-painted color to brighten up your collection. Zinnias vary in size and in color. And that sums up this cachet. Nothing in or on this COLLINS relates to the above account of my youth, but each time you see it in your collection, you'll know that it brought back memories to me of those August days, that little wagon stand, and those colorful summertime bouquets. Zinnia. Item #V2202. $10.75