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Post by macmex on Aug 11, 2021 12:10:13 GMT -6
I am going back a long way to rediscover the love of this flower. When I was four years old my father got me started on gardening with three things: 1) a watermelon which sprouted in my sandbox, from a watermelon slice my mom gave me, while I was playing there, 2) Reading Jack and the Bean Stalk and helping me and my brother plant scarlet runner beans on a trellis. Dad made a huge "to do" about showing us those huge, speckled seeds and asking if we'd like to grow our own bean stalks. Of course, in my mind, I was going to climb mine, but when it failed to attain such a size I was consoled by him having me pick pods for Mom to cook up for my supper. The third thing Dad did was to have me and my brother Tim plant zinnias. All I can remember was that I planted a large purple flowered kind of zinnia. It made large beautiful flowers and it flowered all summer.
Somehow the vegetable gardening took a much stronger hold on me than did flower gardening. This may have been, in part, out of necessity. We wanted to eat what we grew. Yet I have warm memories of growing zinnias, and my wife has been wanting me to put more effort into our flower gardens. She has done a lot of work on those gardens and they look pretty good. Now, I'm thinking I should indeed put more into them as it is something that gives her great pleasure.
This spring there was a shortage of bedding plants, locally. Partly as a result of this, it appears that zinnias got more attention in the nursery where I take my wife to get flowers for her garden. Indeed, I purchased zinnias for work and we purchased some for the house. Both locations have benefited from them. In fact, I am really encouraged with zinnias.
They have done super well in our growing season. The transplants I bought were flowering when we purchased them and they are showing no sign whatsoever of slacking off.
This is a garden at work. Beside zinnias it has some peanuts and Las Tablas Aji plants growing in there. I think it looks wonderful!
I understand that it is easy to save zinnia seed, so that's what I plan on doing. I want to grow a lot more in the coming year.
Anyone else have anything to contribute about zinnias?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 12, 2021 11:55:14 GMT -6
That fountain planter looks great!
I've never grown zinnias from transplants before. I've always direct sown their seeds into my vegetable garden. Their wide leaves make the seedlings very easy to spot while weeding. Once established, they take care of themselves pretty much. I've even had them come up outside the boundaries of where I cultivate and have seen them outgrow the weeds there.
I love zinnias for their resilience! To me, they are prettier than marigolds and seem to be even more carefree. They are a good choice for a vegetable garden, being how they get tall enough to actually be seen among the peppers, dill, and beans that I have growing in the same location. Not only do they lend some much-needed color to the otherwise green vegetable foliage, but due to their long stems, they also make nice cut flowers to bring inside to brighten up the kitchen. A garden wouldn't be much of a garden without a few flowers to enjoy while gathering tomatoes and cucumbers.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 15, 2021 14:21:18 GMT -6
Those zinnias do look great there. They look more well behaved than mine, but perhaps they haven’t hit their “teenage years” yet.
I bought a pack of seeds for $1.49 seven years ago, and I think I’ve planted a few from it every year since then. It was a mix of orange and purple. We, too, let zinnias self seed, and I have some purple volunteers this year. Baker Creek sent me some yellow zinnia seeds as a free pack this year, so I’ve now added that color to my garden. My plants get really tall and tend to flop over if I don’t support them, but they just keep on growing, turning their faces upwards even if the plant is lying down. I’ve never actually saved seeds from them, but I may have to look into it as I wouldn’t want to be without them.
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Post by macmex on Aug 16, 2021 9:04:34 GMT -6
I need to research a bit. Seems that there are different "kinds," as in strains with distinctly different growth habits. The ones I got for work are very bushy and don't get that tall. The ones I remember from childhood grew very tall and had very large flowers. I LOVE that they may volunteer!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 17, 2021 18:27:25 GMT -6
The zinnias in my garden are about 30" inches tall and bend every which direction, kind of looking like a whirlwind went through them. They are not 'well behaved' at all, but they are tall enough to stand out among the veggies and will outgrow weeds to some extent. I've got at least three varieties, one has a much larger flower than the other two and one has petals that appear, mid-seed head. Many are going to seed right now. I just harvested about 100 seed heads; a few from each variety. So, come next Spring, I ought to have plenty of seeds to go around. (If I can keep up with them all winter that is).
This photo is a poor representation of the zinnias as a whole. They are way more showy in person. They were just in the foreground of a photo I was meaning to take of the entire garden, so I just kind of caught them here by accident.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 18, 2021 11:47:12 GMT -6
Those are beautiful! They look more well behaved than mine, but maybe it’s just an illusion because your paths are about five times as wide as mine. Here’s a photo of a fairly upright yellow one, followed by a purple one that has fallen through the eggplant and obstructs one of my paths. It got a little damaged when my husband was hauling asparagus ferns out of the garden on Saturday, but it just keeps on plugging. I guess the fact that they can stand so much damage is part of what makes them a resilient cut flower. My next door neighbors have some beautiful zinnias in their garden (a red one that I’d love to get seeds from). I was playing “Simon Says” with my five and nine year old this morning, and some of the instructions had to do with smelling the flowers. All these years I’ve grown zinnias, I’m not sure I’ve ever really smelled them. The neighbors’ flowers had a really nice fragrance.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 22, 2021 20:35:56 GMT -6
I've cut zinnias to brighten up the kitchen plenty of times, but never paid attention to whether or not that causes what's left of them to branch and bud more. My garden is so far away from my house that I don't really get to enjoy it that way. Plus, it's so big that I'm always too busy to pay attention to things like that. My spindly zinnias might not be quite so spindly if I'd prune them?
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Post by john on Sept 19, 2021 20:35:22 GMT -6
I grow the ordinary tall zinnias Like (State fair or Cactus flower mix) for a cut flower in my vegatable garden. They are great for cut flowers and attracting pollinators. For the landscape I prefer the Zahara series or Profusion series. They are compact and bushy plants that look nice in beds. They also are resistant to leaf spot and other foliar diseases which can be a problem with zinnias. I usually set them in the beds after the spring flowers (like pansies) are done. I can plant the zinnias into early July and have plenty of time to get a really nice show.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 20, 2021 21:38:16 GMT -6
John,
Reading about the pansies in your comment reminded me of what a good Autumn and Winter flower they are. I used to work on the grounds crew at NSU, back in the '80s. About October, we'd turn the beds of summer flowers under and plant pansies for a Winter blanket. I've seen those still holding blossoms during snowfall. I've never figured why calling someone a 'Pansy' was construed as a derogatory remark? If there was ever a flower that reflected a rugged nature, it would be a pansy.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 22, 2021 17:51:10 GMT -6
I’ve been saving seeds from my zinnias and the neighbors’ this year. I have yellow and purple; they have orange and a peachy salmon and white that I’ve gathered. There’s one red that hasn’t gone to seed yet, but I’m waiting for it. We’re mixing the seeds together and then will share them for replanting.
I have some zinnias volunteering in my garden right now. It will be interesting to see how much they grow before our cold comes in. They’re about six inches now.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 16, 2021 5:49:42 GMT -6
Those volunteer zinnias have started to flower. I also have a bunch of tiny seedlings in my garden paths. I have mulch there, not really soil, but they’re doing just fine for now. I doubt they’ll last with the foot traffic, lack of water (though we just had huge storms from Pamela), and the cold coming on. Because I’m not worried about them taking over, I’m letting them go just to see how hardy they’ll prove to be. I am impressed that the ones that came up last month in the garden are ready to bloom.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 19, 2021 14:52:13 GMT -6
I took a quick picture of my volunteer zinnias this morning. The ones originally planted are the yellow ones, and I assume that they are not a hybrid since they were sent to me as a free packet from Baker Creek. I do have some purple ones from an old Burpee seed packet growing about six feet away in a different garden box. I wonder if the pink and the red are a result of cross pollination between the two, or if the purple is a hybrid, and these are reversions. I’m perfectly happy not to have “true” seed for my flowers. I just want flowers, and I had actually collected some seeds from my neighbors’ zinnias in the hopes of increasing my variety of colors, but I haven’t planted any of that. These are just what have volunteered in my garden. I’m especially happy to have a red one. I was so surprised when they opened fully to see that they weren’t the yellow I was expecting.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 4, 2021 22:09:55 GMT -6
I'm not completely sure how I feel about zinnias. I'd often see them promoted by seed companies, but it wasn't until about 5 years ago, when my garden that year was a 25 foot row of sweet corn and about 25 - 15 gallon pots of assorted herbs, veggies, and flowers, one of which was a pot of lavender zinnias. I try to pick everything in shades of lavender or purple, as it is my wife's favorite color. I do remember that I enjoyed growing them.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 5, 2021 20:32:37 GMT -6
Zinnias are resilient little things. Mine are still blooming, though not prolifically. All my other flowers are long gone but the zinnias are still hanging in there.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Dec 16, 2021 18:48:29 GMT -6
Would you believe that I found a newly bloomed zinnia just today, December 16th. We haven’t had a hard frost or freeze yet, but this is just a little plant that volunteered in my pathway this fall. It’s close to a bed where I’m growing brassicas, and it was kind of hidden by a cauliflower leaf, so I hadn’t noticed it until I saw the color today. It’s orange, so it’s another color that I wasn’t growing this season. I’m just loving my volunteer zinnias with their surprise colors.
My pink plant is headed to seed now. The red plant has numerous blooms that are still holding their color. I want to gather seeds from both of these and add them to my collection.
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