Spacing for zinnia Uproar Rose?

What is the best spacing for these zinnias?...have seen 8"-24"; but 8 sounds close for a tall zinnia that is supposed to be well branched and bushy; but don't want them to appear too separated. Do they really branch well?

Nearly everything I have seen on them says 24 inches. I know when they are tiny seedlings that looks like way too much space, but that seems to be what is recommended.

You can make them branch better by pinching the center bud when it forms, or slightly before. I grow my zinnias in rows spaced 16 inches apart, and space them 18 inches apart in the rows. By off-setting them from the adjacent row, the plants appear at the vertices of 18-inch equilateral triangles. When you do several rows like this, the plants form a hexagonal honeycomb pattern that is kind of neat.

If you wanted each zinnia to be more than 18 inches from its nearest neighbors, you could scale that pattern up to retain the equilateral triangles and hexagons with each zinnia farther than 18 inches from its nearest neighbors. The spacing between rows would need to be increased by a proportional amount. The honeycomb pattern makes the most efficient use of garden space, and looks artistic in the landscape. As long as you stick with the equilateral triangles, the bed can have an irregular, almost fractal shape, and still look artistic.

ZM

Thank you for responding. Will pinching Uproar Zinnias cause them to be shorter, as well as bushier?

Possibly a little shorter, especially if they are widely spaced, like 2 feet or more apart. If zinnias are crowded they will stretch to compete for light, with both their central branch and their side branches. I breed zinnias as a hobby, and I use the triangle-honeycomb spacing because it lets me get more zinnias into a space with minimal competition between the individual plants. Individual zinnia plants "do better" if they are two or even three feet apart. The exception to that being wind resistance. Here in Kansas, winds can be a problem, and a somewhat crowded bed of zinnias can help support each other, like in the attached picture. Those zinnias were just close together, and not in a honeycomb layout.

ZM