Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 5, 2 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Hi Brenda,

I was happily surprised by your message. You have some nice looking zinnias, and it is normal for those scabiosa flowered zinnias to have only a small fraction "on-type". Nice looking scabis, and they provide you with some interesting hybridizing opportunities. The guard petals usually have receptive stigmas, which you can use even if the bloom does not present any obvious pollen florets. In case you want to get some pollen from them, the "new" colored central florets usually have an internal anther bundle that you can remove and use as a pollen source.

Your number 3 has an unusual striped color pattern. That may prove to be a dominant genetic trait. I am not a big fan of the striped effect, although I can remember many years ago seeing a zinnia bed at Oklahoma University that was striped in many colors, and I was thrilled by it because I had never seen such zinnias.

I used some striped zinnia pollen (Peppermint Improved) a few years ago, and then quit using it, but occasionally a striped specimen appears, like in my first picture. It combined striped and scabious genes. But, except for the marbled effects I see in some Whirligigs, I am not breeding for broken colors. However, I do not consider the two-color and three-color colorations of the Whirligigs to be "broken".

I am growing several beds of commercial strains, including Burpeeana Giants from Stokes (grown in Tanzania) and California Giants from Eden Seeds (pic #2). I was inspired to grow the California Giants by one of your pictures of a California Giant with up-curled petals. My number 3 picture is one of my California Giants that I will use as a breeder, although its petals are not as up-curled as some of yours. I did get an up-curled recombinant zinnia in my indoor zinnias (the no. 4). And I am still interested in improving my Razzle Dazzle strain (pic # 5 )

More later.

ZM