Gone Gardenin’: Vibrant zinnias bring a little zing

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This article was published 25/05/2017 (3275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Zinnias have been around for a long time, but these popular annual flowers are still popular with many gardeners. The reason might be that they are easy to grow, but it also might be because of all the annual flowers out there, zinnias have the most vibrant, eye-popping colours — or it also could be that there are so many different varieties.

‘State Fair’ zinnias have fully double, dahlia-like flowers that are perfectly formed and very symmetrical. ‘Persian Carpet,’ on the other hand, produces much smaller double, semi-double and single flowers that come in unique stripes and bi-colours, in shades of yellow, gold and maroon.

‘Persian Carpet’ zinnias are bushy plants that grow about 25 cm tall and can be planted in the ground or used in containers. Their mounding growth habit makes them good edging plants along the front of the vegetable garden or flower border and to add to their list of attributes, they have nice long wiry stems, making them ideal cut flowers.

Zinnias are great cut flowers to use in arrangements; the stems are stiff and sturdy, so they stay where they are placed in a flower design. Some modern varieties produce compact plants with short stems, so if you want cut flowers, be sure to check the plant tags to ensure that you are getting a variety suitable for cutting.

Zinnias have a long vase life; an arrangement of zinnias will last a week and a bouquet will do the same. It is best to change the water in the vase daily.

Some of the larger dahlia flowered zinnias, such as California Giants, are simply too large to use in ordinary-sized arrangements, but there are varieties with blooms ranging from 3-8 cm in diameter that are preferred by floral designers. A tall variety named ‘Benary’s’ produces blooms that can be up to

10 cm in diameter and come in a wide range of colors.

‘Uproar Rose’ grows 70 cm high and produces double intensely coloured wine blooms — The International Peace Garden has used this variety extensively.

A unique zinnia, appropriately named ‘Envy,’ has 6-cm dahlia flowered blooms that are lime green and very popular with floral designers since lime green is currently a popular color.

The ‘Cut and Come’ zinnia series is also popular with many gardeners because of their attractive, fully double

5-cm blooms. These zinnias have long stems and come in a wide variety of colours — perfect for the cutting garden, but they are also a standout in the garden.

Many gardeners use single zinnias in mixed containers; the ‘Zahara’ series is one that is often used for such a purpose because it grows only 30 cm tall — the perfect height for a container. Recently the ‘Profusion’ series has also been popular and this variety also comes in a wide variety of colours.

‘Profusion’ zinnias have won several AAS awards; they produce a “profusion” of single flowers (double forms have recently been introduced), which makes them ideal as bedding plants or as container plants. These 30-cm-tall plants produce small 5-cm blooms that literally cover the bushy plants.

A quite recent release is a zinnia called ‘Queen Rose Lime’ (sometimes you will see it listed as ‘Queen Red Lime’) that has 6-cm, perfectly formed, double dahlia-flowered blooms.

No two blooms are exactly the same shade. Individual blooms have outer petals that are dusty pink or smoky burgundy and then taper to lime green centers. In some blooms, lime green predominates, while in other flowers dusky rose or burgundy dominates.

Zinnias are annuals and because they are fast growing they are often seeded right into the garden in the spring. Seeds can be sown indoors from four to six weeks before the last frost to give the plants a head start and garden centers have lots of zinnias as bedding plants if you do not wish to grow your own.

Zinnias need sun and perform best if their soil is kept moderately moist. Too much water, however, may result in root rot or contribute to disease problems. They will be happy in ordinary garden soil which is rich in humus.

Zinnias will continue to produce flowers all summer until fall frost cuts them down if old blooms are removed. They will not tolerate frost so they should not be planted outdoors in the spring until all danger of frost is over.

Do not crowd zinnias either within the row itself or by planting companion plants too close; zinnias need their space. They are happy grown in a row in the vegetable patch or cutting garden and this is where gardeners who use zinnias for cutting grow them.

However, zinnias can be grown in clumps in annual or mixed borders where they will provide season-long colour starting in late June — blocks of single colors work best in this case. Shorter varieties make good edging plants while taller ones can be placed further back in the border.

If you want vivid colour in your garden this summer, grow some zinnias. Whether you plant them in flower borders, feature them in containers or create fresh bouquets or flower arrangements, you will enjoy the bright colours provided by zinnias.

Albert Parsons lives, writes, and gardens in Minnedosa.

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