The flowers I chose are the marigold, the petunia, and the purple coneflower. I like to refer to these old fashioned favorites as my poor man s flowers because they are still relatively inexpensive, yet fit nicely into most flower gardens. As a young girl growing up on a farm, I still remember these flowers being in my mother s garden. We were are large family of nine children and, like most folks during the Great Depression, we were dirt poor. But we were never too poor to have some of these flowers in our garden.
Marigolds are a fairly trouble free summer annual in all zones.
They usually bloom the entire summer to frost if the old flowers are deadheaded regularly. Marigolds of all varieties can be started indoors from seeds then transplanted. Or, their seeds can be planted directly into your garden soil in early spring. They will sprout quickly in warm soil. There are so many different and new strains that the gardener has a wide choice indeed.