Zinnia profusion or a colorful border flower under 18"

Over this past year, I have read alot of really nice comments about this flower. I am considering using them to line the area directly in front of my azealas that form our foundation plantings. Since it is a fairly long area, I wanted to be sure that these flowers do bloom all summer, and are not high maintainence. If they are susceptible to any particular disease or insects, I would love to know.

The other plants that I am considering are marigolds (old standby), vinca (cooler series), geraniums (great flowers - unless there is a lot of rain) and osteosporum ( I love the blue centers). If anyone else has a suggestion, I am open. I want to be sure to get my seeds in time to start my flowers for spring.

Last year, I tried caladiums for the first time. I didn't plant enough, and they didn't provide the umph that I was looking for. I like a lot of color. Even when I admire a display that is all one color, I find myself itching to mix colors.

Here's my take on them. Other people may have totally different opinions, and I invite them to post their experiences with them.

Yes, they do bloom all summer, I didn't see any particular insect or disease damage. The biggest problem in my opinion is that some colors fade TERRIBLY! I can send photos to prove it, but stay away from the Double Cherry. It fades, first it looks like it's virused with pink stripes and a dirty pink background, then finally it's all that sick, dirty pink.

The Apricot fades to a peculiar yellow-chamois color...a color I particularly despise.

The whites are drab, not sparkling.

That leaves Fire -- a bright, basically non-fading deep orange
Cherry -- a gorgeous, gorgeous one!!
and a Coral or Mango or something, I forget, but it faded a bit, I thought, but was still quite nice. It actually fades to the color that fresh 'Apricot' starts out as. before it fades to yellow-chamois!

I guess you can figure out which ones I will grow again. :)

They get quite broad, so leave plenty of room between them. 12-13" or so. If you grow them from seed, it looks quite sparse when you set out your seedlings, and you will wonder if they will ever fill in or not, but they do. I have a lovely photo of a cherry one, but it is mistakenly next to an orange marigold, and neither look all that great :))

I decided to plant them really close last year in a couple of places, thinking I wanted faster coverage, but they never did well at all. Oddly, the ones that got part shade did as well, or better, than the ones in full sun. This could be a function of better soil or better water, it wasn't a controlled experiment, just something I noticed.

Other things you could consider that are a little bit more lively are Jewel Nasturtiums, Melampodium (would be at 16-18" tall by the end of the summer and is plain yellow, but it makes a nice mound, or MY favorite: the mini snapdragons!!! Love them and they are fragrant, come in lots of colors and bloom all season. See is cheap, too. You can put them out in mid March, as they can take a LOT of cold. They bloom into the fall, and then, just when you're cleaning up the last of the garden, you realize they are still green. I believe about 50% of mine will be back next year. They are about 2/3 the width of french marigolds, so plant them on 8" centers, or so. Sow extra so you can pull out ones that are off color, because even the ones that are all one color have some plants with yel'ow lips...can detract from the look you might be after.

There were some really pretty borders from a guy in Florida, dale_a_gardener, if you remember, who posted last year in this forum. I was very taken with one photo particularly -- he had Nasturtiums and mid-sized snaps along with some other things, but the Nasturtiums were absolutely wonderful and we all ooohed and aaaahed over them. I just scanned the 2 threads, but I can't find the photo. It was multicolored, so maybe not what you wanted, but oh, so pretty!

That's my 2c, I hope others have other ideas, too,

Suzy

Suzy,

Thanks for your insights. I will admit that I was relucant to plant alot of a plant that I have never seen in person. I'm especially happy that you shared this with me because I really like bright colors, and it sounds like I would be disappointed. I am surprised to hear that Dale is growing snaps in Florida - I know that they like cool weather. I was actually planning to put some in this same area this past fall, but I decided to wait a year. This is a new lasagna garden, and I have learned that there is less chance of the grass surviving if I don't insert new plants immediately.

I actually found a beautiful ripple geranium at Stokes last night that I am considering. I'm not sure how a large area would look with them, but they are so pretty that I have to add some into my garden. Here is a shot of the raspberry ones. Maybe I'll mix it with something else to make it more interesting. It is hard to me to consider just one type of flower or color. The other advantage is that if one of the flowers poops out during the season, I wont be left with nothing or some strange muted color if it fades.

I love zinnias, but am not a big fan of the Profusions. I prefer tithonia to them which looks pretty similar - not sure if the heights would work for you. I like calendula for that height. Osteopeureum are nice - never tried them from see.

Touch of red calendula

Al,

Those are pretty. I'm not familiar with calendula. Are they related to marigolds? Also, are they as easy to grow as marigolds?

I am adding some tithonia to my garden this year. I found one that is only about 24 ".

They are also called pot marigolds, but I don't know how related they are. They are real easy to grow from seed and are fairly short. Mostly yellow/orange colors. They are in all the seed catalogs.

This one is Sherbet Fizz.

Hey, Al, Fancy seeing you here!

I understand why you don't like Profusions from what you wrote on another thread, but retell it for Penne. My probelm with them is they don't ever change. I might as well have fake flowers stuck out there. :)

Also, on the Calendula, do you think the differences in summer heat between Wisconsin and Virginia might be the same problem as snaps? That they prefer cooler summers? Last year was my first year for Calendules, but they died out (to be replaced by Zinnias). Then in fall they germinated, and some even bloomed. I think they might be green under the snow and bloom in very early spring, but I won't know until spring comes.

Suzy

I don't recall what I said**lawyer whispering in to ear**

I don't really enjoy the petal shapes on the flowers and the foliage on the profusions.

Calendula do fine in the heat here, foliage is fairly blah too I will admit.

Fake flowers - now that reminds me why I don't grow gerbera daisies - my best one grown looks almost as good as a fake one.

Pennefeather,

I breed zinnias as a hobby, but I haven't bothered with the Profusions because so many do fade or are kind of dingy to start with and the flowers all look pretty much alike. I haven't tried crossing them with "regular" zinnias because of the big difference in chromosome numbers. All that said, there are some decent looking Profusions and the very similar Pinwheels. Pinwheels and Profusions probably could be crossed, but they both are rather low-growing and, at my age, I don't like kneeling and bending way over to hybridize flowers. There is a "double" Profusion http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=2390&PrevMainPage=advsearchresults&scChannel=Annuals%20AS&SearchText=p16.v226;p13.Zinnia;p16.v230&OfferCode=V1H and Burpee just introduced a new Profusion-like Highlight Hybrid zinnia. http://www.burpee.com/product/annual+flowers/zinnias/zinnia+highlight+hybrid+-+packet+%2825+seeds%29.do

In some places, marigolds are like "red spider magnets". When I was growing zinnias in Fort Worth, I actually grew marigolds as a "trap crop" for red spiders. Red spiders seemed to enjoy the 100° Fort Worth heat. I guess plant sap must be like Gatorade® for them. Fortunately red spiders haven't been a problem for us here in Maine.

Some "regular" zinnias have been bred to look good in borders. Dreamland and Magellan http://gardeners.harrisseeds.com/cart/detail.asp?subcat=159&product_id=03978%2D10%2D02 are available in separate colors, and the two Swizzles http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=2139&PrevMainPage=advsearchresults&scChannel=Annuals%20AS&SearchText=p16.v226;p13.Zinnia;p16.v230&OfferCode=V1H have a look all their own. For really compact borders, Zinnita http://gardeners.harrisseeds.com/cart/detail.asp?subcat=159&product_id=02152%2D10%2D02 is a good choice. Zinnita is an improved form of the well-known Thumbelina strain. http://www.burpee.com/product/annual+flowers/zinnias/zinnia+thumbelina+mix++-+1+pkt.+%2875+seeds%29.do Thumbelinas can start to bloom when they are only 3 inches tall and, like all "babies", they are really "cute" when little.

I grew over a thousand zinnia plants last year, and only in the late Fall did three of them show signs of Powdery Mildew. I didn't lose a single plant to PM. I did spray some with a product called GreenCure®. http://www.greencure.net/why_is_greencure_fungicide_better.asp

I did stop spraying with GreenCure when I saw no signs of mildew, but maybe I shouldn't have stopped, because I did have some trouble with other foliage diseases. This year I plan to spray with a product called Physan 20 http://www.physan.com/PAGES/home.html in addition to the GreenCure. Physan 20 has a lot of uses besides for foliage diseases. I recently used it as an aid in growing zinnias from cuttings. It is available from a number of online sources. http://www.planetnatural.com/site/physan-plant-fungicide.html

One easy way to avoid mildew problems is to do a succession of plantings so that your blooming plants are never going to seed. Once a zinnia plant starts forming seeds, it loses some of its natural immunity, sort of like those salmon that really die fast after they spawn. This year, I also plan to experiment with Messenger http://rosemania.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/product444.html as a way of boosting my zinnia's natural immunity.

MM

Did you guys see The Amazing Race last night on TV? One of the challenges was to go into a really HUGE fake flower store in Osaka Japan, I think, and find the only real flowers only by sight or scent. (Couldn't touch) They had hidden a real one in certain arrangement and bouquets, etc.

It was hysterical. Mr. Clean (this is myhusband) asked me if I could do that challenge and I just laughed and told him the trick was to ask the clerk where the Jasmine was, or find the Stargazer (Oriental) Lilies and skip the Daisies and Gerbera Daisies (where the contestants appeared to spend the most time, although I know the show is heavily edited)

I'm pretty sure anybody reading this thread could have done it in about 15 seconds or less. LOL!

Suzy

I need to remember what zinnias I was going to try this year. Will have to go through the old threads.

Suzy - I can't smell for squat so I might have to cheat.

I like the zinnias and dahlias that I am seeing now. Just like last year, I find myself branching out into areas that I had not considered before. I especially like what I have heard about how easy they are to grow from seeds. Last year someone was amazed that I grew geraniums from seeds. It was my first time, and the germination rate was low, but it was still worth the effort.

Maineman, that sounds like a fascinating hobby. Unfortunately, with two young children, and a full time job, I could never devote the time that I would like to it. As it is, I spend an inordinate amount of time in the summer in my garden. I love the idea of a greenhouse, but there are many other things that need to be done first.

Suzy, unless it is on HGTV, there is little chance of me seeing it.

LOL!! Not enough G on HGTV to suit me, but I suppose that's another thread. :)

Penne, Isn't it AMAZING? Flats of flowers are $15.00 at the garden centers here. Well, maybe I could do it more economically than I do it, but even with all all the postage I use, they probably cost me $8.00 a flat. Al, does that sound about right? LOL! You probably have your acountant whispering in your other ear. ;)

Suzy

To digress into the G, I have been involved with professionally landscaped projects and know that there are steps that cannot be done properly in an afternoon or weekend. Yes they do lack G, must not be a profittable draw as remodeling.

My accountant left after he saw there wasn't any money to embezzle.

i love zinnias too--i planted them from seed last summer and they just bloomed and bloomed and bloomed--since i am so new at gardening it was a real boost to my confidence!! i had no idea they could grow so tall --although i did have some that were much smaller too--but mine did fade---and it was not a pretty fade--it was a kind of beige look! i love marigolds because they just work so hard and need so little-----and give off so many seeds for the next year--

Al, tell your accountant to take mine with him!

Too tall probably (they grew over 5 feet) for what you want but here is a 45' long border of Purple Prince zinnias from last summer:

http://usera.imagecave.com/Hist/garden/52zinnia.jpg

They did succumb, late in the seaon, to powdery mildew. Had I kept on top of it with baking soda as I had begun to do in mid August, they probably would have lasted until the frost.

David,

Love those Zinnnias.....What about your great Aster picture from the year before? Can you post that for Penne? I don't think it's the same kind of garden, but it's such a cool picture!

Suzy

David_Paul,

"They did succumb, late in the season, to powdery mildew. Had I kept on top of it with baking soda as I had begun to do in mid August, they probably would have lasted until the frost."

I have found that a product called GreenCure® is considerably more effective than baking soda against Powdery Mildew and a host of other foliage diseases, and it is better for your plants. You can use it as frequently and generously as you wish with no fear of sodium poisoning of your plants or soil, because it is based on potassium bicarbonate instead of sodium bicarbonate. In fact, the potassium is actually good for your plants. And its proprietary wetting agent is the best I have ever used.

http://www.greencure.net/what_is_greencure.asp

http://www.greencure.net/why_is_greencure_fungicide_better.asp

http://www.greencure.net/where_to_buy.asp

For regular use, I dilute the GreenCure 1 tablespoon per gallon. Toward later in the season, when my older zinnias start to lose their natural disease resistance, I increase that to 1½ tablespoons per gallon. You can go as high as 2 tablespoons per gallon.

http://www.greencure.net/how_to_use_greencure.asp

GreenCure is safe to use:

http://www.greencure.net/common_questions_about_greencure.asp

And it is effective against a number of diseases.

http://www.greencure.net/plant_diseases.asp

I'm not connected with the GreenCure people in any way, other than being a satisfied user of their product.

MM

Maineman,

I may give Greencure a try this summer. I didn't have mildew problems with my zinnias, but I did have problems with my coneflowers.

David, I did grow purple prince as well as green envy this year. They are too tall for the area that I am thinking about, but I will probably grow some more purple prince in a different area. I am thinking about trying cherry swizzle in this border, since it is shorter.

Can I ask a stupid question since this will be my first season with zinnias (well profusion, anyway) . . . what would happen if I just deadheaded the flowers when they fade? Would the zinnias make new ones?

We had one zinnia last year - given to me, so I don't know the cultivar. It was tall and magenta - the colours never faded and it bloomed right up until frost.

That's why I thought I would try lots more.

No such thing as a stupid question when it comes to gardening! There are always others out there with the same questions that are too shy to ask.

Usually deadheading annuals allows for new growth by not letting it go to seed. I would imagine that the new flowers would come in the orginal color, but I have not grown the profusions myself.

I love the apricot profusion zinnias! This one was wintersown last year.

Last year I wintersowed a million different kinds of zinnias. In that heat, drought, and humidity, only the profusions (I grew orange and apricot) made it through the whole season with no trace of powdery mildew.

Karen

This was my first year for trying zinnias from seed. I wanted so badly to try the Profusion series, but ended up with Burpee's White Wedding, Purple Prince, and Highlight Yellow. I'm really anxious to try Purple Prince as I know several people who have raved about it after they saw I ordered it. I keep hearing that I won't be disappointed with the Prince.

I really never gave Zinnias so much as a passing glance before. I dunno, maybe now that I can finally grow seeds I took heart and will give them a try.

penne, if you like big, double zinnia blooms but would like short border plants, you may want to consider the Magellan series from Parks. They also have the Daydream series (as do some other vendors). Last year I tried Magellan Pink and Daydream Coral. The Magellan Pink had bigger blooms, and all fully double, while Daydream were all semidouble. I've ordered 6 colors in the Magellan series this year I loved them so much. At the end of summer when we started having water restrictions, they did mildew and the drought was so bad I didn't bother treating them. I didn't have them mulched; I think that would have made a world of difference.

Oh, forgot to mention, they had buds in 6 weeks from seed!

Those were planted at the front of a border, and never exceeded 12-18"

Dreamland coral, wintersown last year.

Karen

Late summer mildew. (I wintersowed a lot of zinnias last year, they profusions were the only ones that didn't get mildew.)

Karen

Your dreamland had the big double blooms I was hoping for, lovely in that first shot! I had Envy last year too, and it mildewed worst and first, and the Magellans resisted for a time (till weather conditions were just too terrible). The Dreamland I had in a pot that was hard to keep watered enough, so I attributed their mildew issue with that, but it could just be more susceptible.

They really were beautiful, but, after all that mildew, I can't decide whether or not to start any this year. Might be better off just sticking to profusions. They're so reliable for me, and very pretty.

For the people who got mildew on your Zinnias last year, Karen and Neal and anybody else, I'm curious, did you start your Zinnias early, or did you direct sow?

Suzy

I had some sown indoors early, some wintersown, and some direct sown, and they all ended up with it. But it didn't become an issue till later in the summer when I couldn't water. Till then they all were happy.

They were "wintersown" March 31. Same method as wintersowing, in milk jugs, just done in spring rather than winter, more ventilation holes in top of the jug.

Karen

ok, I have to chime in. I grew orange profusions last year. I loved them. Orange is the only color I grew, and Suzy did say that the orange ones didn't fade as much, so I may have been lucky. I'm about to order seeds for the orange and I thought I'd try the cherry this year for a pink windowbox I'm planning. Although they didn't get mildew per se, they did get a little "rusty" by the end of the summer. This photo was taken on 9/9/07. I grew the profusions from seed (from Territorial) and started them inside.

As for the mildew, I had read both a baking soda solution and a milk solution would work. Last summer, I happened to have some leftover milk in one of the kid's glasses, so I mixed it with water (I had read the solution should be between 10-30% milk, so you can just eyeball it) and put it in a plant mister and sprayed my direct seeded zinnias (mostly cut and come again) and my perennial speedwell, both had terrible mildew the summer before. I did this about once a week, when I had some leftover milk, and it worked great. By the end of the summer, I had gotten a little lax, and they started to get a little mildew, but nothing like the summer before.

Here's a picture of my cutting zinnia garden, taken on 9/9/07 also, and you can see they are pretty healthy with the milk spraying, and compost worked into the soil in the spring. Other than that, no chemical fertilizer or spraying.

One last picture. Here's how the profusion looked with purple wave petunias along my walk last summer. The lighting wasn't great in this photo, too much sun, but hopefully you can get an idea of the height. The tall yellow spiky flowers in the background were celosia that I bought from a nursery, which also looked good with this combo. I've been looking for yellow celosia seeds for this summer and can't find them. Does anyone grow them from seed and know where I can order seeds?

Valueseeds has red/yellow mix for 79 cents
http://www.valueseeds.com/item-6162.html

Parks has them, but they're pricey and Park's shipping is outrageous
http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=0484&PrevMainPage=textsearchresults&scChannel=Text%20Search&SearchText=celosia&OfferCode=V1H

They also have a yellow crested, but again those prices
http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=2886&PrevMainPage=textsearchresults&scChannel=Text%20Search&SearchText=celosia&OfferCode=V1H

For Parks, you can google and find 10-15% discount code, but still pricey. I'd first try locally in garden centers, Home Depot, Walmart, Walgreens, etc.

Karen

Love those coral zinnias! I had zinnias last year - no mildew. Of course, I only had a few of the purple princes and the green ones (I can't remember the name right now).

Now I'm thinking of a combination of stello d'oros, some red daylilies, red geraniums, white geraniums, a red and white mix geranium, yellow marigolds, pink diathus, short mixed colored dahlias (from seed) and red saliva. This should be a nice bright mixture. I may have to find something blue and spikey as well - maybe a blue salvia (annual). I also have some dwarf white coneflowers that I am starting. The only items that I am going to buy are the red daylilies, and I saw a great price on some reblooming ones on Ebay.

No matter how much admire someone else's subtlely colored landscape, I always gravitate towards rainbows.

I'm glad I found this thread!
I have mostly shade and therefore focus on shade perennials, i. e. hostas & woodland-type flowers... but I am SICK of having no flowers with "oomph", if you know what I mean!!!
I decided "easy" annuals in my sunnier spots would be the answer. I read about the Magellan and Profusion zinnias in the T&M seed catalog, and bought quite a few (I found the Magellan on Swallowtail seeds for a very reasonable bulk price). I am so excited! B/c I don't have hot sunny spots, I'll bet mildew will be a problem for me, so I'm glad for the heads up. Thanks!
I also loaded up on cosmos and marigold seeds! I can't wait to see the results!!

Jax, The cure for mildew is not to ever get it in the first place. LOL!!!

Neal alluded to it, but I'll say it flat out: to prevent mildew, keep them watered in July and Aug and Sept. It's an old wives tale that it's caused by cooler nights or water on the foliage, but I swear, it is the lack of water that causes it on Zinnias, on Phlox and Monarda, and probably Lilacs, too. I use a sprinkler (the old fashioned that goes back and forth and you move it from place to place) and the Zinnia, Phlox and Monarda foliage all gets wet every single time I water. Our water restrction last year was an even -odd days, so I gave them a quick wateringing every other day....less than 10 minutes, but believe me, the foliage all got wet, but I didn't have any mildew.

Suzy