Annuals: Zinnia profusion or a colorful border flower under 18", 0 by cindyeo

cindyeo wrote:
ok, I have to chime in. I grew orange profusions last year. I loved them. Orange is the only color I grew, and Suzy did say that the orange ones didn't fade as much, so I may have been lucky. I'm about to order seeds for the orange and I thought I'd try the cherry this year for a pink windowbox I'm planning. Although they didn't get mildew per se, they did get a little "rusty" by the end of the summer. This photo was taken on 9/9/07. I grew the profusions from seed (from Territorial) and started them inside.

As for the mildew, I had read both a baking soda solution and a milk solution would work. Last summer, I happened to have some leftover milk in one of the kid's glasses, so I mixed it with water (I had read the solution should be between 10-30% milk, so you can just eyeball it) and put it in a plant mister and sprayed my direct seeded zinnias (mostly cut and come again) and my perennial speedwell, both had terrible mildew the summer before. I did this about once a week, when I had some leftover milk, and it worked great. By the end of the summer, I had gotten a little lax, and they started to get a little mildew, but nothing like the summer before.