Photo 1: Pic of zinnia seed packets (not a good one). These are described as Giant, Violet Queen and Giant, Lavender Gem




What's actually blooming is a small pink thing. Not at all what I had in mind. I wanted the pot with the buddleja lindleyana to be monochromatic:



What happened? I bought the Ferry-Morse seed packets at HD. How do you ever know what's going to come out of the packet if you can't trust the label. OTOH, whoever labeled these colors needs to take a color theory class and get some new glasses right NOW. I do really like the frothy look of the container that comes with the zinnia foilage, though. Thanks for any advice I can get on this.

It's sad when this happens. I thought it only happened with morning glory.

CarolHB said:
What's actually blooming is a small pink thing. Not at all what I had in mind. I wanted the pot with the buddleja lindleyana to be monochromatic. ...What happened? I bought the Ferry-Morse seed packets at HD. How do you ever know what's going to come out of the packet if you can't trust the label. ...whoever labeled these colors needs to take a color theory class and get some new glasses right NOW. ...Thanks for any advice I can get on this.

Hi Carol,

The pictures on the packets are reasonable representations of the zinnia varieties Violet Queen and Lavender Gem. The Lavender Gem packet looks a bit faded. The inks that they print seed packets with are not lightfast, so fading is a problem with seed packets on seed racks. Your pink zinnias are not Violet Queen or Lavender Gem. If the seeds which produced your pink zinnias came from either of those packets, then Ferry-Morse, or whoever filled those packets for them, screwed up. There are many reputable online seed sellers, and I buy most of my seeds that way.

ZM

All those zinnia seeds came from those two packets. So, no more seeds from HD. Every time I look at them I want to tear them all out of there, but I won't, probably. I also ordered a batch of seeds from that Heirloom seed place - name? Oh, Select Seeds. I've got some of them in and will see what comes up. I also have some zinnia 'Envy' starting up - be interesting to see what color they really are. Just have to get into acceptance and try again another time. Thank you both for all the tea and sympathy. I will do no more seed buying until I check the recommendations here. And thanks for responding to my little temper tantrum.

Carol, I hope "Envy" does well for you. It does need some shade for best performance in my experience. I tried growing a "clump" in all day sun last year. They grew fine but the blooms were completely undesirable. I'll check my folders but I know I didn't frequent that area with my camera.

Oh well, phooey. Well, actually with the sun still trying to decide if it wants to move to the summer side the light and shade patterns are so variable that most of that area gets morning sun, early afternoon shade, and then some sunset sun. No telling what it will be like in another month. I shall wait and see. Thanks for the heads up, Wes.

CarolHB said:Oh well, phooey. Well, actually with the sun still trying to decide if it wants to move to the summer side the light and shade patterns are so variable that most of that area gets morning sun, early afternoon shade, and then some sunset sun. No telling what it will be like in another month. I shall wait and see. Thanks for the heads up, Wes.

I did not intend to be negative. More a reminder that's not mentioned on the seed packet. A beautiful flower and a true favorite but all ground-grown with shade. I'll grow Envy and variants until I die. It is that good.

It's worth finding the exact spot and if you grow in pots, so much easier. I'll pot some and ground grow a few for comparison this year. There will be obvious differences and we'll have good zinnia discussion.

Cheers!

Update on the pink zinnias - my new avatar is one of those pink things, but with that butterfly visiting them every day I haven't got the heart to rip them out of there. I have thinned them out some to reduce the canopy so the butterfly bush gets more sun down in the bottom of the pot. I don't know what the neighbors thought about me stalking the butterfly in my nightgown, sweatshirt and fuzzy slippers, but, Hey! who cares? The enlargement of the pic is pretty good. The smaller one seems a tad fuzzy to me.

CarolHB said:...The enlargement of the pic is pretty good. The smaller one seems a tad fuzzy to me.

Hi Carol,
You could always just upload a larger picture here.

This National Gardening Association forum stores larger versions of uploaded pictures that you can see by clicking on them.

ZM

Well, I could just post it here, couldn't I? Sheesh... If it gets any easier I may have to shoot myself.

That's a great picture. It clicks to really big.

I could have cropped it more, but I used it for a print first and then forgot. I keep forgetting to ask the birds and bees forum which b'fly that is... I'll remember eventually. I do love the picture

Zinnia mix.

oooohhhh... Kate, that's just delightful.

Hi Kate,

Those Zaharas look great. And the two-toned ones are especially nice. Hopefully in future years there will be a variety of two-toned (and perhaps three-toned) versions.

An update to let you know that Ferry-Morse did send replacement seeds for the purple and lavendar. I'd already started some like that from another source, so they can wait, but we need to know which companies actually keep promises and this one did.