I am curious in knowing how long people have been able to keep their annuals going for. Right now I have celosia. The older celosias I purchased back in september. Two of those flowers are very worn out. So which annuals do you have and how long do you expect them to last?

Eric, don't despair, keep this thread up until summer! Too cold here for annual flowers, but I will have a lot by June.

It appears a celosia i bought back in december is on the wa y out. Maybe root rot from staying too wet.

That could do it. From what I know about them is they like to be on the dry side.

So for dome reason both of the celosias i bought from lowes died in a three month time span. Not sure why. The good news is i am seeing some type of seedlings growing in their pots. I never had these id ed. So i dont know if they can be grown from seed or not.

Well, the plants you bought were grown from seed, so it sounds encouraging. Typically annuals have a short life. They're genetically constructed that way. Their life can be lengthened by growing in certain climactic conditions. Some annual flowers have longer lives than other annual flowers. Marigolds and zinnias keep on growing and flowering until a hard frost here, provided they are deadheaded on a regular basis. Flowering for annuals indicates to the plant that it's time to die, because to flower and set seed is the main point of its purpose.

Many/ most annuals will decline or die after producing seeds. That is the primary purpose of the flowers of course. I am not real familiar with celosias but maybe they should be dead-headed after flowering? Definitely can be grown from seed, but it is certainly possible that other seeds, including weeds, may have germinated in your pots.

Hello Eric,

" I am curious in knowing how long people have been able to keep their annuals going for. "

I keep my outdoor zinnias growing and blooming right up until a killing frost or freeze. I am in Kansas, which is in the Midwest, and we usually get a killing frost sometime in October. You are in Florida, so you may not even get a killing frost, so all bets are off with you and zinnias. These are a couple of frost-bitten zinnia blooms from a previous year. Click on the pics for larger views. Hitting the F11 key removes your browser's heading material, which makes more room yet for the photos. Hit F11 again to get your headings back and close the big photos with the "X" in their lower righthand corner.

I would be curious to know how zinnias do in your part of Florida, which might be frost-free.

ZM

Zinnias tend to not stay so pretty where I am. Im in North central fl. I would say after a few weeks the leaves develop blemishes and the plant still flowers, but the plant does not look that attractive. More good news I have is the pot I had with a Dracula celosia in it is full of tiny seedlings.

Zinnias do tend to get fungal diseases on their foliage, specially in humid climates. Mine do. I have to space them out wider than I would like to let the air flow through them. Powdery mildew is common with them.

I would recommend the celosia armor mix. I've bought four for two bucks. The smaller bees and wasps like them.

So now a few of my armor mix celosias have brown leaves, but the flowers are still bright. I maybe watering these too much so I'll see what happens when the foregone ones reseed and I can try again.

Most my celosia armors lasted only a month in a half. They were not in the largest pots. Anyone have any idea why they did not last longer?

I simply don't know, Eric. I'm thinking there is a time limit built in to them genetically.maybe your plants time was up.