Here we go! New thread...
here are some of my Profusions... I am really enjoying these colorful little guys!
So.. where were we besides coming from here?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1116603/
This message was edited Jun 20, 2011 8:15 AM
Thanks for the hardening off advice! I kinda sorta did that, but not quite. I'll know next year! Some of them look like they might make it, even with the bayer 3 in 1 it looks like some of the leaves have PM on them. I'll get spray today.
Love the pics posted! Hopefully someday I'll have some worthy of sharing. Again, thanks so much for your help!
I planted about a zillion zinnias this year, and I have this one with a strange leaf...It's like the leaves forgot to separate and fused together. Is this a weird thing or is this common? I've never seen one do this before...
MudBugs,
That is definitely not common. I have raised a lot of zinnias in my time, and I have never seen anything like that.
ZM
Annie,
"...even with the bayer 3 in 1 it looks like some of the leaves have PM on them."
Young zinnias get Powdery Mildew very rarely. It would help if you could post pictures of the affected zinnias. Just out of curiosity, what spray do you plan to use?
ZM
Daniel,
Has that little yellow zinnia changed its appearance much in the last few days?
ZM
Oh, that reminds me, I had this slightly odd yellow zinnia bloom a few days ago.
ZM
LOL! ...."slightly" odd? Thats jsut downright weird!.. but pretty!
I FORGOT to plant zinnias! OMG.......guess I need to go buy some now
JB,
"...guess I need to go buy some now"
Maybe not. Even with your shorter growing season in Calgary, there might be enough time left to raise zinnias from seed planted in the ground. They bloom in 6 to 8 weeks from seed. The seeds cost considerably less than the plants, and there is a wider range of varieties in seeds as compared to what is available in plants.
For interesting variety in two-tone and three-tone zinnias, I suggest trying some Whirlygig zinnias. (sometimes spelled Whirligig) They are full of surprises. I took a picture of this one this evening. Whirlygigs come in many colors and forms, but I like the narrow petals with space in between that this one has. It is almost spider flowered.
ZM
Well, I do have a bunch of seeds, so I will sow some. Thanks
Love that pink Zen!
Are the "splashy colors in my profusions normal? seems they go a great color.. but are then not supposed to be solid color? They were a mix but all it said was profusions.
BB,
"Are the "splashy colors in my profusions normal?"
Not really. Some Profusion colors normally fade a lot with age, but your "splashy" effect differs from that. I think you may have some kind of mutation there. Some of my Whirligigs have what might be considered a "splashy" effect on their petal tips.
ZM
I dont know Zen.. I got these at the local store and gosh tehy sure have been a pretty thing.. there are solits and such.. perhaps maybe they are hybrids? I have been letting them reseed in their pots.. I should start collecting seed for next year....I really like them! Maybe I will have some more "wild" ones!
BB,
If you have any seeds now, you could plant some now for a second generation of bloom before a killing frost this Fall. I'm still planting zinnia seeds outside, and probably will be for several weeks.
ZM
Well, thats what I am doing for now.. just letting them go to seed until my pots are full. I will collect seed later. I think these guys are going to go all summer with abundance. What seen has come actually has been great! But so far no germ.. its to early for much germ. Perhaps in a few days.
This is a recent Whirligig zinnia bloom. I like Whirligigs because they come in so many different color combinations.
ZM
I live in 4b, and I winter sowed zinnias (actually that is all I planted this year), and they did very well. I will post a picture to show you how well they did with the winter sowing.
I grew Envy last year and had lots of butterflies..
This year's peppermint stick zinnias are nice, but very few butterflies.. Too early?
Zen_Man, I gotta try those whirligig zinnias next year.. Those colors pop!
this is profusion double fire, bought as flat plants, it done well this yeaar.
Thanks BB for continuing this now 3 year old thread!
Here is a white one.
Orange
Just wanted to thank you all for the suggestion on my failing zinnias. We had a death in the family so I kind of forgot about them and have been occupied with the loss. I finally looked at them today. Some are long gone, brown, dried and flat. Others, amazingly, made it and are thriving. I noticed that with one variety all of them died. I will look them up so I don't buy them next year.
Later this year I will tune in to learn about better, hardier varities so I can grow some as beautiful as the ones pictures here. Thank you all so much for your kindness, sharing advice and patience!
Annie
RrrrGrrr,
"I gotta try those whirligig zinnias next year..."
This is a picture of some of my Whirligig patch.
ZM
Those are so beautiful Z_M! I must try them next year as well...wow!
Question for you, Zen. Would it be possible for a Cactus zin to cross with a Peppermint or Candy Cane and the result is quilled and striped?
Daniel,
"Would it be possible for a Cactus zin to cross with a Peppermint or Candy Cane and the result is quilled and striped?"
Yes, that would be possible. A quilled striped zinnia would have a unique look. At one time a few years ago, I planned to do that very thing. But then I came to think of striped and spotted zinnias in the same way as striped or spotted tulips, which owe their striped, spotted patterns to a virus infection. It's not a virus in zinnias, but I am not a fan of the effect.
This is a picture of the striped spotted effect that just appeared in a scabiosa flowered recombinant. It had apparently been hidden as one or more recessive characteristics. It can be a unique effect, but I am not breeding for it.
ZM
This message was edited Jul 12, 2011 9:49 PM
I like that zin Zen!
Are you thinking about those Rembrant tulips?
BB,
"Are you thinking about those Rembrandt tulips?"
Yes. The original striped or "broken color" tulips were the Rembrandt variety, and the color patterns were caused by a virus. The virus-infected Rembrandts are no longer sold because of the virus. I understand that virus-free tulips with similar color patterns are now available.
I just didn't want striped zinnias to start showing up everywhere in my zinnia patch. I think the last striped zinnias (Peppermints and Candy Canes) that I grew were in 2005, at which time I (and the bees) did some cross pollination with them, before I resolved to avoid the stripes. Striped zinnias still appear in my zinnia patch occasionally, so I didn't quit working with them any too soon.
I like bi-colors and tricolors, like with the Whirligigs, and occasionally I see a striped pattern that doesn't look "broken", but the Peppermints and their like do have a sort of a genetic defect that concerns me.
By crossing Whirligigs with Cactus-type zinnias, I get a lot of big zinnias with blended color effects, like this recent one in the picture. That zinnia would have an entirely different look if those colors were striped and/or speckled. I recognize that some people might like that look, but it is "not my cup of tea."
For anyone interested in cross-pollinating striped zinnias with other types, by all means do so. You are almost guaranteed to get some interesting results.
ZM
I can see your veiws.
Yeah, those Rembrants were caused by a virus.. too bad too becasue they were gorgeous.. I cant understand that though...just how a virus is responsible!
My profusions are getting large and spreading. I am soo very happy with them.
This year however gardening has been a royal travisty. All the rain, just late planting and just downright no fun.
Weeds up the kazoo.
Well, today I gleaned Profusion zinnia heads! Awhile back, after the last killing frost I yanked them out of the ground and cut the roots from the stems. I put the stems, blossoms up in a big box that was first lined with a large plastic garbage bag. I left the bag in the box open so the stems could finish out drying and today, its gleaning day! I gleaned the blossom heads of by hand, put the seed heads in a tin pan to finish out more drying and now I have a nice pile of seed heads that are shattering and have given me lots of seed!
BB,
"This year however gardening has been a royal travesty. All the rain, just late planting and just downright no fun."
It was a pretty good year for me, except for an extended period of drought. I had to water my zinnias several times just to keep them alive. I did get some interesting new zinnias, so I did have fun cross pollinating them. That lets you play match-maker among your zinnias, deciding which ones should be crossed with which ones.
"My profusions are getting large and spreading. I am soo very happy with them."
I'm glad you had good performance from your Profusions, and I see that you developed a good technique for getting a lot of seeds from them. I look forward to some pictures of your zinnias next year.
Although I have been shucking a number of brown seedheads, I also saved a lot of zinnia seeds at the greenseed stage and dried them out prior to packaging them. The larger zinnias have larger seeds and larger petals, and you can pluck out those petals individually and either plant them for a quick second generation or dry them to package them for use later.
I did get one zinnia specimen this year that had an unusual spreading shrub-like plant. It was over five feet across in some directions. Completely un-zinnia-like. I saved both green seeds and brown heads from it. I crossed it with several other unusual zinnia specimens, and I can hardly wait to see if that shrub-like trait is transmitted to any of the progeny.
ZM
BB,
This year I also got an interesting trumpet-petaled mutant zinnia that I crossed with a lot of other zinnias. I hope to get much larger tubular petals in the hybrid progeny from this specimen. I may be a bit overly optimistic about it, but I am hoping to get a whole new zinnia flower form from its hybrids.
ZM
I also got several zinnia specimens that had un-zinnia-like "toothy" petal ends, and I am hoping to get some interesting new petal forms from them next year.
Wow Zen, that red trumpeter one is awesome! So very different! The pink one too!
Yes, the way I saved the seed worked really great. I was hard up for boxes the day I pulled them from the garden and put them in huge plastic garbage bags and had to check those daily for moisture.. after I got the boxes, things were much better for dryign them. You can do lots of kinds of flwoers that way... I also did some marigolds which I have to deadhead off the stems yet.. Im not looking forward to them.. the stinky things they are,but the zinnias worked very well.
These are those bargains I got early on in the spring that got frosted at the garden center and were like a $1 a flat! I got lke 18 flats of them.. a few were flats of marigolds, but if their seed turns out to be viable in the spring, can we say cha-ching!
If anyonehas more than enough zinnias andwoudl liek to share please D-mail me...
