Zinna time!

Were they zinnias you purchased and transplanted into your garden? I think I recall reading something about double zinnias perhaps reverting back to singles if the roots are disturbed too much during transplanting??? Is this correct?

amorecuore, Thanks for responding :) I did grow them from seed but they were all together so I had to take them apart and transplant them into the garden so maybe thats why....Hmm....maybe the stress causes them to revert? What about soil? My soils not so good....perennials do well but I noticed the annuals in the ground don't do so well.

I grow mine from seed also and then transplant. I couldn't figure out why I was always getting single blooms also the last two years and then I read something about it this past winter. I know I was transplanting way too rough. When I transplanted this summer I just planted and gently filled in the spaces with soil. I'm actually getting doubles this year.
I'm not too sure about the soil thing to be honest. I would guess there's quite a difference in the soil in Southeastern Ontario compared to South Florida. I amend garden soil, compost, peat moss into the sandy soil we have here.
Jon

Steven,

"I planted both 'State Fair' mixed Zinnias and a mixed cactus type and they're all blooming as singles with normal petals."

It is possible that the stress of root disturbance during transplanting caused them to be single. I would cut the single flowers for a bouquet (or just cut and discard the single flowers) and baby the plants and hopefully the later blooms will be double. Like Jon, I start my zinnias from seed indoors and then set them out into the garden. Most people would recommend direct seeding zinnias into the garden, but I breed my zinnias as a hobby and I prefer to avoid the risk of cutworms and other hazards for my special hand-pollinated seeds.

I don't actually transplant my zinnias, because I plant one seed per small 2½-inch square pot and they quickly become rootbound, which lets me just drop the intact cubic rootball into my hand with no root disturbance at all. I can set that rootball into the garden with no root disturbance or I can repot it to a larger pot, also with no root disturbance.

On the other hand, if you have to "dig up" a zinnia to transplant it, root disturbance is unavoidable. At the very least, that will be a setback for the plant and, as you mentioned, that setback may cause a normally double zinnia to bloom out as a single. But I think that if you can "make your zinnias happy" with some good care, including soluble nutrients, there is a good chance they will produce side branches with normal double blooms.

My zinnia breeding activities produce quite a few truly single zinnias, and I discard them.

ZM

Jon,

"The lowest foliage starts to develop a white powdery layer on it and then the foliage starts to turn brown."

"White powdery layer" does sound like Powdery Mildew. PM is a fungus. There is also a Downy Mildew, and its spores can germinate in wet conditions. I have no doubt that zinnias do have disease problems in Florida. Daconil is just one of several fungicides that can help deal with zinnia diseases.

ZM

Thanks Zen Man! I'll whip out the Fish E this week and feed them again! Do I have to cut off the single blooms? So far each only has one flower but I'll try to do it in the morning........I don't know if I have the guts to cut them though :) And as for next summer I will be MUCH more careful!

Steven

Steven,

"Do I have to cut off the single blooms? So far each only has one flower..."

No, you don't have to cut those single blooms off, particularly if you want to see what those blooms will do next. And, grin, they are your zinnias and you are the boss of them. But cutting off blooms that you don't need is somewhat akin to pinching plants to make them bushier or deadheading blooms to prevent the plant from going to seed. Those blooms are a drain on the plant, and the plant will develop better without them. Removing them will encourage side branches.

ZM

Ok, thanks Zen Man! I'll snip them off! Theres a new one opening this morning that looks like it might turn out to be a cactus type :)

Steven,

That one looks like it is going to be double for sure. It's not bad, either. I kind of like the pointy petals. I have been crossing and re-crossing my zinnias for four years, purely as hobby, and you can get some interesting results that way. There is a message thread called It can be fun to breed your own zinnias over in the Hybridizers forum.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/hybridizers/all/

This is one of my hand-pollinated hybrids that bloomed recently. It has large flowered heritage from Burpee Hybrids and two-toned genes from Whirligig. I like this combined effect and I am using it as one of my current "breeder" zinnias. Which means I will self it, pollinate it with other good zinnias, and save seeds from it for further zinnia breeding fun.

ZM

Oh WOW! I love it! And thanks for the compliment on mine, that's my first yellow this year....the rest have been pink and purple.
I'm going to check out that thread on the breeders forum and maybe try to cross my own Zinnias for next year. That would be alot of fun! Would it be possible to cross my Zinnia haageana 'Persian Carpet' with my Yellow Cactus flowered Zinnia?

Steven,

"Would it be possible to cross my Zinnia haageana 'Persian Carpet' with my Yellow Cactus flowered Zinnia?"

It might be. I tried it a couple of months ago indoors, using the dwarf form of Persian Carpet called Aztec Sunset, and I didn't get any seed set at all. But one of the participants in the zinnia breeding threads over at the GardenWeb Annuals forum may have succeeded. I am going to try again, because I think some very interesting results could come from interspecific crosses like that. Here is a picture of the Aztec Sunset that I failed with.

ZM

Very nice Zen_Man! I think I might give it a try! I just need to know a few things :)

#1 The mother bloom that will produce the seeds must have a net or something similar over it to make sure the bees don't get to it. Do you place the net over the bloom before it opens?

#2 Where do I put the pollen on the mother blossom?

#3 How mature does a flower have to be to receive pollen?

#4 What do I use to pollenate? Can I use something like a Q-Tip?

Thanks so much!
Steven

Steven,

"The mother bloom that will produce the seeds must have a net or something similar over it to make sure the bees don't get to it. Do you place the net over the bloom before it opens?"

No. No need to. I usually start by placing a net over the bloom that I expect to produce the pollen that I will use. If I plan to use pollen from several blooms, I net them all. The net is just to prevent the bees from "robbing" the pollen. Later, I may also net the female flowers to protect them from accidental bee pollination. And, as the seeds mature, those nets can also serve the purpose of protecting the seeds from seed-eating birds. Some small birds really like plump zinnia seeds.

"Where do I put the pollen on the mother blossom?"

Place the pollen on the stigmas, which are the little yellow forks at the base of the petals.

"How mature does a flower have to be to receive pollen?"

The flower can be quite young when the first petals open enough to display their stigmas. As the days go by, successive rows of petals will emerge and present their stigmas. The process of pollinating all of the petals on a zinnia flower can take a week or more as successive petals emerge. It's up to you how many of the petals you wish to pollinate. You get one seed per petal. When the pollen on a stigma "takes", that stigma will wither and turn brown in a day or two. If the pollen does not fertilize the seed, the stigma remains yellow and receptive for several days, so you have several days of opportunity to get a stigma fertilized. The old saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" applies. Pollinating or cross-pollinating zinnias is actually quite easy.

"What do I use to pollinate? Can I use something like a Q-Tip?"

A Q-Tip is not ideal because, although it will gather the pollen into its fibers, it does not readily release it. The cotton swab might work, but a small artists brush is much better, preferably one that that comes to a point. You can also use tweezers, twissors (tweezers with scissors-like handles) or small forceps to pinch the base of a floret, remove it, and use the floret itself as a brush to apply the pollen.

This attached picture shows the use of an artists brush touching a floret to get some pollen on the tip. Sometimes just touching the pollen in the center of a floret is all that it takes to get a load of pollen on the brush tip. Sometimes, especially when I am returning to a floret for some more pollen, I rotate the brush a little to help pick up pollen from the floret.

ZM

Steven,

This attached picture shows the artists brush being used to deposit pollen onto a zinnia stigma. I chose this zinnia as a female breeder based on the wavy edges of the petals, which give it a frilly look. I chose the male for its blend of rose and white on the petals. I look for differences in flower form, as well as flower colors, color patterns, and plant habit. Zinnias appear in an amazing variety of forms, and the possible combinations for cross pollinations are virtually endless. Zinnias are full of surprises.

ZM

Wow, Thank-You Zen_Man! I really can't thank you enough for answering all my questions with such easy to understand answers! The pictures are an added help as well! I have an artists brush like the one in the picture so I'll be sure to use that too.

Theres several Persian Carpets blooming now so maybe I'll try my hand at crossing those and hopefully they'll take. Mine are mostly single, but there's some that are pale yellow with a deep red at the base of the petal and I really like those ones so maybe I'll try crossing it with itself and with a more double orange one aswell.

Thanks again! You've given me lots to think about!
Steven

I am in awwww!

And sooo very jealous of all you guys with zinnias this year.

Usually I do a bunch but lost all my seed so had nothing this year....

SW... and here I thought you were hot on only bruggies!!!

The Rose Dreamland zinnias in this photo were blooming away until about a week ago when a snow got them, but they sure added some nice color long after the daylilies were done. My 8 year old neighbor girl says they are the most perfect flowers in my garden, so I guess I'll have to plant some for her next year again.

Susan

This 8X8' raised bed has hyacinths and creeeping phlox blooming in early spring, but I usually use zinnias for summer and fall. The old fashioned flowers like ziinnias and marigolds seem to do better here than anything else and I enjoy them.

Susan

Beautiful!!

I'll second that!!!!

Man, I just have to get some for 2010! They are all so wonderful!

Our outdoor growing season is coming to an end, but some of my Whirligig x Spiderish flowered zinnia crosses have resulted in some subtle pastel color gradations. I'm saving seeds and taking cuttings for indoor growing. Most of my "breeder" quality zinnias are in zinnia cages for protection against winds and stray dogs. Some wires of a zinnia cage are evident in the photo.

ZM

Well, they are nothing fancy but I acquired some "cheap" Zinnia seed....probably nothing like what you guys are doing...

1) Lilliputs
2) Giant Cactus
3) Dwarf pumila Sprites
4) Giants of California

Each has mixed colors so I have to be satisfied with those for starters to get going again. Nothing fancy, but its better than nothing...I am game for more though!

I used to have thousands of seed from an accumulation of open pollination I had going for several years running..then one year the floods took all my plants....Some of mixes in there were fabulous and the shapes were pretty neat too, but nothing was bred specific in any direction. They were lovely surprises with NOID parentage!

At this point I will settle for any that I can get.

This message was edited Oct 26, 2009 2:31 PM

Ain't that the truth!
Take as we get them!

Sounds like a good mix. I love the California and Benary Giants now that I learned to be gentle with them when transplanting them. I used to push the soil down around them when I transplanted them. That was a bad thing to do as so many of them would revert back to single petalled blooms. Now, with a more gentle touch, I seem to get almost all double blooms.

Jon

Jon, is that what makes the difference? I don't recall if I was particularly gentle with them, but I was thrilled with my Benary Giants- big, fully double blooms, and not a single "pine cone" looking semidouble. I wintersowed them, and planted 2-3 seedlings per hole about 18" apart. It was crowded, but pretty! Come to think of it, I planted multiple seedlings per hole to keep from handling them too aggressively. Perhaps that did make a difference- very curious to me.
Neal

I grabbed all the zinnias I could.. they were 10c a pak.. couldnt beat that with a stick! And want more! Dang I had a bed about 100 feet long and 3 feet wide and well, words cannot express the missing of those plants!

Here are the lilliputs...sorry the pic is blurred. I just cannot get the hang of closeups with my cam. But you can sort of see the flowers!

This message was edited Oct 26, 2009 5:19 PM

I recall reading somewhere that disturbing the roots can cause doubles to revert back to singles. That shouldn't be an issue if you direct sew the seeds. I have to space mine so far apart in the summer in Florida. It's our rainy season and I space them generously so the foliage will dry out faster. Mildew is a pretty big problem with zinnias in Florida in the summer. Perhaps I should try them in the winter when it's much drier and less humid. I've wondered if the shorter number of daylight hours, in the winter, would cause them to be smaller. I think my very favorites the past two years have been Benary Giant Lime and Apricot Blush. Apricot Blush comes from Renees Garden and a combination of the Lime and Apricot are available in a seed pack from www.reneesgarden.com. The two colors together look awesome.

Jon

I love zinnias. Have any of you tried Sanvitalia, Creeping Zinnia? It is awesome in containers (front left in photo)

I love that! Beautiful container grouping too! I've never grown those, did you start them from seed?

Yes, from seed (indoor start) & also wintersown. There are different kinds, green eye, brown eye & one is orange. Just noticed that in the bottom right is the brown eye one. Thanks for the comment on the grouping. I do lots of containers and had several groups that were sorta color matched.


No color now, until next year :(

Got the T&M 2010 catalog in and expect the rest to arrive within a month. I love looking thru hard copy catalogs. Hope they don't change to on-line only.

Here's an 'Enchantress' that is Varigated.

Here is a Cut and Come again that, when somewhat old, the center become blue. I have had this var. for 3 year.

An orange 'Burpeeana'

Ok, can you really cut anc cut again??!

Of course! The cut&come again is very aptly named as 1 plant can produce 100+ blooms in three months. Also, bloom quality(size, color, number of petals) does not decrease with this var. Have lots of seeds if you want any.

Daisy, you're in the Piggy Swap aren't you? If so, I know I'll be requesting some- I love the color and number of petals!

dasiys - any color and kind you have! Mix them up is fine by me! Ima looking for a rainbow! Got a good size plot for them if I could only fill it!

My butterflies are waiting!

Hello,
I have seen all your zinnias and I agree your pictures, flowers and diversity of colours and series.
My english isn´t good, you see. I also love zinnias and this is the link when my pictures are. All of them are seedling and growing for me this year in my garden.
Kiss,
Ana
http://picasaweb.google.com/toledoarauxo/Zinnias09#

Gorgeous pictures everyone