Annuals: Zowie Zinnas, 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Betty,

I haven't had any mildew yet this year. But, based on last year's experience, I can have problems with mildew, particularly in cooler weather such as we are beginning to have now. Last year I had good luck spraying with a product called GreenCure® http://www.greencure.net/what_is_greencure.asp so I bought enough of it so that I can spray frequently with it, if need be. Since GreenCure is based on potassium bicarbonate, it is safe to use, and it has a very good wetting agent, so you get good coverage. Rain does wash it off, though, so you need to re-spray after every rain. Maybe I will spray my zinnias with it today, as a preventive measure.

Zowie is an F1 hybrid example of bicolored/tricolored zinnias, but as you have seen from my pictures, you can get that same color combination from bicolored zinnia strains like Whirligig, Carousel, and Zig Zag. Last year I planted a couple of dozen Whirligigs from Stokes Seeds, and I got several good specimens in several color combinations that I crossed with selected Burpeeana zinnias.

I was a little tentative with that, since I was just renewing the hobby after a multi-decade hiatus. I am retired now, so I can devote more time to it. Last year I didn't do as much cross-pollination as I should have, and I hadn't yet developed the technique of using little "hair nets" to keep the bees off of my breeders, so my seed yield wasn't as good as I might have hoped. But I did get a dozen or so Whirligig x Burpeeana and Burpeeana x Whirligig plants, several of which retained the bicolored characteristic in a more informal flower form. And, although F2s are highly unreliable, I have been getting some good bi-colored specimens, which I am selfing and intercrossing.

Based on the success of Zowie, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it offered in new color combinations, perhaps starting in 2008. Last year I had an interesting tri-colored Whirligig. It had gold at the outer part of the petal, white in the middle, and rose at the base. I haven't seen that tri-color this year, although I used pollen from it, but I have seen several of the Zowie tri-color. The Zowie combination overlaps gold or yellow and rose or red to get an orange intermediate section.

The advantage of crossing bi-colors and tri-colors with each other and with solid colors is that the F2 recombinations can produce an almost endless variety of subtle and bold new color combinations. Some of the subtle bicolors are barely noticeable, such as with this F2 specimen.

MM