Since hedgehogs invaded, I am thinking about the nature of popularity. The idea of fads is quite an old one and originated with the book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, published in 1841. This is where information about the South Seas Bubble and tulip mania first came to public attention.

I wanted to draw tulips, but it isn't the right season. I was even willing to buy the expensive cut flowers that are shipped from Colombia and filled with pesticides, human suffering and excessive green house gas emissions. But no tulips to be found at Fred Meyer. Instead I bought a zinnia, another popular flower for yards.

I may color the background yet. This variety of zinnia is called scarlet. Like tulips, they are bred into strange colors and sizes, all for what humans enjoy seeing in their yards. But the tricky flowers use this to their advantage, because the fact that we like them, means we spread their seeds.

Monarch butterflies like to eat zinnias. This is a monarch caterpillar on a zinnia leaf.

To read more about the flower industry, the way it works and the sad facts about child labor, look at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/theres-a-1-in-12-chance-your-v-day-flowers-were-cut-by-child-laborers/253084/