I hope you all have noticed the Peabody petunias are blooming again along the foundation at Cameo Rose Antiques. There aren’t many this year, and perhaps that does not bode well for the future of these migrating downtown flowers. Take a gander at them, perky and tenacious in their effort to colonize the cracks and splits in the concrete surfaces of downtown Peabody.

No one seems to know where they came from, but they have been dressing up the southern portion of the main business district for a number of years. No matter how brutal the summer sun and temperatures, they seem to thrive and spread.

The showing this year is the skimpiest by far, and while I might be wrong in assuming they are on the wane, it doesn’t look to me as if they are going to come back in the strength they exhibited three or four years ago. And that is too bad. The petunias have become sort of a symbol of the ability of this community to hang in there despite the icky stuff.

We will have to see where this leads. Stay tuned.

— Susan Marshall