this was my first year of growing zinnias and i am thoroughly impressed. they make excellent cutting flowers, and tolerate the heat well. i find i do have to water them every three days in the texas heat or they start to wilt, but they bounce back easily without suffering.
here's a picture of my first blooms cut (to make room for the next round) and arranged in a vase.
Nice 'pop' of color, very pretty arrangement.
I love Zinnias - they are butterfly magnets and just seem to keep on blooming!
i love zinnia's too, but i hate the powdery mildew. i've been trying a few of the new disease tolerant ones and so far so good. right now most my zinnia's are just a few inches tall. looking forward to there blooms later this season.
EvieStevie,
Just out of curiosity, do you know what variety of zinnias are in your flower arrangement? I notice they seem to be all the same color, except there is some variation in flower form. The one with the upward cupped petals seems rather interesting.
I once had a zinnia that had the petals completely rolled into tubes. It was quite unusual, although the best color was concealed inside the petals. I still wish I had some seed from it.
There used to be a zinnia variety -- I forget the name of it although it was something like "Fantasy" -- that had the petals downrolled, almost into tubes, and the tubes were also curved. That was better still, because the good color was on the outside. The flowers weren't particularly large, about 3 inches as I recall, but the unusual flower form made them really stand out, in the garden or indoors as cut flowers. Unfortunately, a lot of good zinnia varieties have "gone extinct", including some that won awards when they were introduced.
MM
I like zinnias too but always hated the way they looked by mid-summer - ratty and covered in powdery mildew. One year I was really behind in my gardening and by early July I still hadn't planted my zinnia seeds. I figured I had nothing to lose so I went ahead and planted them and I had beautiful healthy zinnias until the frost killed them. Now I always wait until early July to plant them. By that time, I usually have bare ground where early crops/flowers are finished and I just plop the seeds in there.
in a catalogue selling seeds it had how easy or difficult they were to grow. with cosmo's it said something like....if you can't grow cosmos give up. LOL that really cracked me up, since i have a hard time growing a lot of seeds. but my cosmos are coming up. LOL
debi z & franklin
If you like zinnias check out Stokes Seeds. They have a nice variety. They have one called Whirlygig that is a bicolor. And if you just one particular color you can pretty good sized quantities too. For some reason the zinnias have just popped here this year. They came up so quickly and even. Seems like sometimes they can come up rather spotty. And they are so nice to save your own seed in these too.
MM, i looked at the seed package (from wal-mart) and it is a "zinnia giant, violet queen".
i know what you are talking about with the rolled up petals variety of zinnia, but i don't think mine is that variety. that flower in the picture is like that because i snipped it before it was completely bloomed out. but i would be interested in growing the rolled up petal type for sure!
luckily i have had no problems with powdery mildew, but like NoH2O said, i think if you plant them as late as you can in the season, they should be ok. i planted mine from seed at the beginning of june.
and on another note, i am finding in my new home that the sun hits the south balcony (where they are planted) later every day as the season goes on, so my zinnias are not getting full sun now until about 2p. the second round of flowers therefore seem to be a little smaller :( so these guys definitely need all the sun they can get
I love zinnias and have a huge bed that reseeds every year. Last year I planted some Park's picks and all I can say is WOW! Big red, yellow, pink and purple blooms. No way you could miss them when driving by. They came back too. Between them and the yellow and orange cosmos, this hot summer weather isn't hurting the garden in the least.
Your zinnias are very pretty. I have planted Violet Queen too and it is one of my favorites. I also like the Profusion zinnias. They don't seem to have mildew problems. I am growing the orange, pink and a new one this year that is a deeper orange.
Susan
Johnnyseeds is the best zinna products I've even seen/purchased. If you go to the ' commercial' side of the site you can order each color - and there are tons to choose from - in 1/4, 1/2 lbs etc. The Virginia Tech Hort. gardens use Johnny's and I've been using their seeds for veggies and flowers - great, high quality plants.
lincolnitess - I have planted the Profusion zinnias for the first time this year. I think the deeper orange one your are talking about is called "Fire." The pink one is "Cherry." There is a new one offered by Swallowtail seeds that is called "Apricot." It is beautiful.
Someone else had Apricot but I can't remember who. The seeds are quite expensive for this series.
shihtzumom - thanks for the info. I have some friends that might want to share seeds next summer.
Hi Eviestevie!
Beautiful zinnias! I grow zinnias along an 80 ft white fence every year, my DH loves them!
We grow zinnias at the wholesale cut flower place where I work. We cut them when there is just two or three of the little yellow petals out in the center, they last a lot longer. When they have the total yellow center we call them "Pollened out" and they are too far gone to sell.
Just a tip..............cut them sooner if you want them to last in water, also don't cut them when the temperature is above 75-80 or when they are still wet with dew, they seem to flop easier then, especially if they have really heavy heads (like the big ones do)
I've grown flowers for years but didn't know there were so many rules for when and how to cut them till I started working there! LOL
I grew profusion this summer, (orange and white). I will be growing more next year!
btailoring,
thanks for the info on cutting zinnia's. i love this type of information. thanks.
osteole,
your gardens are gorgeous.
EvieStevie,
Thanks for identifying your Violet Queen zinnia. I will try some next year, because that color is kind of unusual in zinnias. I also have a packet of Dark Jewels zinnia that I haven't planted. It is supposed to have some good richer colors, including maroons, purples and violets.
I always kind of hoped the plant breeders would be able to produce a true blue zinnia. Years ago while growing some lavender zinnias, one had blooms that were a kind of blue-lavendar. Not too far from a sky blue. Maybe the gene splicers could splice in a good blue from some other flower.
And, while they are at it, splice in some glow-in-the-dark genes. I would like to have glow-in-the-dark zinnias, glowing in all colors. Well, maybe that is too much to ask. But, seriously, I wouldn't mind if they did some genetic engineering in ornamental plants. I might be afraid to eat glow-in-the-dark corn, but I wouldn't mind growing glow-in-the-dark flowers.
But I wouldn't want glow-in-the-dark edible flowers. We got our first nasturtium bloom today, and ate it. The flavor is much milder than the leaves, which are a bit spicy for my taste.
MM
Hi everyone!
I planted my zinnias, downstairs, under lights, in late April. They went out in early June: Green Envy, Violet Queen and a mix. In early July I put down a covering of long needled pine needles and still don't have any mildew problems. We did spray them, as tiny seedlings, with Messenger. Now they're big healthy plants and still no mildew.
mainman, you crack me up. i'm afraid that you might end up with glow in the dark birds, if they eat those seeds. now wouldn't that freak you out one early a.m. to look up to where those sweet bird songs are coming from and see a flashing robin. or worse yet, a pregnant robin's belly flashing i orange
pirl, they are beautiful.
