Zinnia, Elegant Zinnia, Garden Zinnia 'Mixed Hybrids, Noids'

I always knew these as "Old Maids" as I grew up, and it wasn't until we moved from Georgia to Kansas that I began to hear them called Zin...Read Morenia. You just have to love the variety of colors, plant heights, and flower styles that these easy to grow flowers provide. They grow in almost any soil type, in full sun, with only the most minor of assistance.

If you are someone who just wants to grow a small tough plant with ease, Zinnia is very ideal. I can easily germinate them without any co...Read Morempost or any special tool. They could tolerate extreme heat, droughts and even sometimes cold. You could grow them in really small containers and enjoy their fragrance. They grow very fast, so you do not have to have one of those long waits.They mostly attract butterflies, since the flowers provide a fine landing pad for them. I live in Zone 4A (Toronto, Ontario in Canada) which is very cold and I grow them well. I give them 10/10! :-)

All Zinnias do well here in South -Central Alabama. I am especially fond of the profusion series and the sports of Zinnia angustifolia. C...Read Morerosses have been made between elegans and angustifolia that flower for 120 or more days here. For spectacular drougth resistance try the smaller ones they do well and don't need to be deadheaded hardly at all.

I am completely new to gardening, and these flowers are GREAT for garden-dumb-dumbs! We had just moved into our house and didn't have muc...Read Moreh time or money to get the landscaping up to par this spring. I bought some seeds for a dollar, hoping for the best, and LOOK OUT~! talk about bang for your buck! They utterly shocked me with their height and longevity, and I have collected the seeds to plant more next year. They have turned what was a sad little display around my mailbox into something above par. Definatley one of the best dollars I have ever spent. And once I know more about gardening, I am sure I will continue to have these in my yard!

This plant does very well over here, even though it´s not one of the people´s favorites. The flower heads are long lived, starting with...Read More strong colors (there are pink ones growing near here), becoming pale as time goes. Here this plant reseeds itself somewhat easily. I have to try it myself.

Zinnias are really easy to grow,and they grow very fast.We've had these in our garden for years now,and we've never had to plant new seed...Read Mores.They reseed rapidly,and they have the greatest,brightest colors!Everyone should have these in their garden.This is one of the few plants that can survive here in 90+ heat,and the flowers stay beautiful all year round.Plus the seeds are very easy to collect and clean.Overall,its a great plant to have in the garden.

Although by the hot humid time of mid summer this plant's leaves are usually covered in mildew, the flowers are still a pretty addition t...Read Moreo the garden.
I have taken the flower buds and a few inches of stem and disgarded the mildew and stuck this part of the plant in moist soil.
The top soon starts to grow more leaves and roots will form to make a short compact version of the mildewed parent plant to add to containers for late color.

Zinnias grow beautifully in my area of zone 5. One problem that sometimes occurs, if conditions are just right for it and tha...Read Moret is fungus,however,I find it was easily controlled with a fungus spray and it did not effect growth or flowers.

These flowers are so easy to raise, they grow incredibly fast, and they are very pretty. And you can practically complete neglect them, a...Read Morend they will still thrive. Which makes them great for children to grow.

I planted zinnias in a bed that is about 3'x15'. They grew so fast I couldn't believe it, in fact they got so tall I was having to stake ...Read Morethem which was a job, some were as tall as 4-5' The flowers were beautiful and they continued blooming as I kept cutting flowers. The leaves are a greenish grey and the problem I had was that the taller they got the bottom leaves became so dry I had to cut them off and that caused them to look "woody". I tried cutting some of them down to about a foot hoping they would "start over" but they didn't so I wound up with sticks that had stems everywhere with lots and lots of flowers.I wonder If I had "pruned them early if this woody look could have been prevented.

I have several varieties of zinnia. Narrow leaf is perhaps the best since the birds planted it for me. The larger varieties are prone t...Read Moreo mildew and loose their appeal quite fast. The dwarf types bloom all the way to the first freeze and come in colors of orange white and pink. But there is another variety that I know is a zinnia but it does not have any petals. But I can tell from the leaves that iit is a zinnia. It just puts out the center and is red with yellow. They are kind of fuzzy. I love the zinnia, even with that horrible mildew they still put out such beautiful blooms.

I have zinnias of all kinds spread out through out my yard. I have the liliput mix which the flower is very small to the cactus mix some...Read More of them got to be about 5 inches. They just bloom and bloom I believe anyone who has access to dirt can grow them I had some come up in a pot on my deck this year noone planted them. The pot sat close to some other I had last year and it was a nice suprise this year. The hummingbirds loved them on the deck I think I will plant a couple of pots with the seed I collect this year.2003

I planted a couple of new (for me) varieties this year, some of the pastels scabiosa mix, peppermint mix, white purity, and some of the california giants agaIN THEY ALL GREW WONDERFULLY WITH ALMOST NO CARE. I even had some volunteer of the lilliput mix come back up way away from the original planting but it was a nice surprise 2004

This year I plan to plant a few different zinnia mixes I have recieved from several trades, Colorado, New Zealand, and Spain, I cannot wait to see what comes of these seeds. I did plant the white one year they did not look so good like...dirty...I will not be planting the ourity strain again. 2005

I love zinnias, and my Mother and other relatives always had them in their Summer gardens, both in Louisiana and in Georgia. They flower...Read More well in the hot, often rainy last days of Summer, when only the crape myrtles seem to be flowering too.

I planted quite a few this year to attract butterflies, but our incessant rain in Northcentral Florida, zone 8b, has really discouraged my zinnias, and I only have a few blooms in August, which should be the height of their flowering. My cosmos, a good companion plant for zinnias, have turned black, shriveled up and died, but the zinnias keep on growing, so lanky they are falling over, but hardly any flowers.

There are all sorts of varieties in the market now, but I really like the giant "cactus flowered" ones. All the different colors make the garden more attractive during this late Summer lag, and interplanting zinnias with vegetables will help attract pollinators.

November 18, 2003: Here in Northcentral Florida, zone 8b, we've finally had a long stretch of warm, sunny weather but with no freezes yet, so the zinnias have finally come into their own. Along with the red flowering pineapple sage they are attracting lots and lots of butterflies, especially Zebra Longwings and Cloudless Giant Sulphurs.

Zinnias do very well in hot, dry weather. One of the few annuals that are going strong in Aug. here in GA. My late Granny and other Sou...Read Morethern ladies of their generation called zinnias "Old Maids". I had never heard anyone outside of my family refer to them as such until I saw the OM reference in Welch and Grant's heirloom book.

To avoid mildew, don't get the foliage wet. Also water in the morning so the sun has all day to dry the foliage. PM watering will guarantee mildew. The more you cut Zinnias the better they love it. You get bushier plants and a longer bloom time, too. As the season winds down, leave some dry seed heads to re-seed if so you desire for the next season.

Absolutely easy to grow, this plant offers both beautiful long lasting flowers and the presence of butterflies who seem to never tire of ...Read Moreeating the nectar of this plant. We are growing this plant at high altitude in two situations for the journal of the plant's adaptation to it's environment. One clump is planted in full sun in a very rocky spot of the garden. The rocks include pea gravels and larger effect rocks. The roots have little to nourish them there. The zinnia blooms are spectacular on that plant. The other plant is in good garden soil between two outdoor water gardens. It receives full morning sun and then is protected by neighboring tree foilage. The plant flowers well in both situations. Our butterfly population has tripled since the introduction of this plant to the growing space. Fertilize once when established with fertilizer pellets specified for flowering plants. Cut off spent blooms to insure the continued production of beautiful full size flowers. Drought does seem to ruin this plant, not the lack of existence of good garden soil. Seeds are attached to the outer petals of the flower and are best late summer. Plants will become lanky so do pinch back stems during early growth to promote bushiness of the plant. An annual.

Though Zinna elegans might sound pretentious, the zinnia is a simple, cheery garden flower that's related to the black-eyed Susan,...Read More marigold and aster. Direct-seeded, they bloom from July to October. Colors depend on hybrid. The more you cut, the more flowers the plant will produce, hence the nickname "cut and come again"