Hi Pandora,

I have never had a bad experience with Johnny's Selected Seeds. I guess you sort of mixed them all together in the bed. Actually, that is a good looking bed of zinnias. Having the plants be compact like that gives the bed a good shape. I grow some Burpeeana Giant zinnias because they are supposed to have compact plants, in the 20-inches to 24-inches height range, and be well branched, which many of them are. Many of my hybrids-of-hybrids zinnias involve some Burpeeana "blood". I am also a big fan of Whirligig zinnias as a good ingredient in zinnia cross pollinations.

I encourage you to at least dabble in breeding zinnias. You can do that by saving seeds from your favorite zinnias. And making crosses between zinnias is quite easy. There are some interesting possible crosses that you could make in that zinnia bed.

ZM

Zenman, I usually order Burpee's and have very good results. This is only 2nd time from Johnny's. I hope your experience with them holds out.

We'll, I didn't intentionally mix them up that much. Was supposed to be 8 cells of each seed packet, planting all cells from a seed packet together in order of expected height. (Of course a packet of mix, would be mixed).

Would blooming so early explain shorter stem, but they will get taller? Or are they at mature height before blooming?

I don't know about hybridizing. I'm not very patient and by the time they bloomed I'd forget what I was trying to accomplish.

One interesting zinnia in that row. It's hidden top left of other photo.

The Benarys Giants ARE supposed to get quite tall, and mine always have, to the point of needing some support. And beautiful big flowers, too.

Well, Woofie, these guys better get their youknowwhat in gear.
It's still early, they may surprise me yet. I just supposed they would concentrate on growing height before starting to flower. Maybe it's because they are so darned happy.
Or maybe it's because I'm so short, they thought I wouldn't notice.


I've got stakes ready.

>> I've got stakes ready.

I hope you're planning to stake them up so they don;t flop, not planning to stab them in their hearts!

I like the "hedge" effect of that dense, narrow bed. A zinnia hedge!

Hahaha, no stabbing in mind. Thanks. I like a nice wide row of flowers, 2-3 across. A zinnia hedge! Good name.

This is the end row of my veggie garden, nearest the road.

Thanks @zenman for nice comments. It did turn out pretty good. Maybe next year I'll try Burpeena Giants.

Maybe they're not as tall because they're all so close together? That will cause at least some plants to stay a bit smaller. I notice that with my poppies. But they still look very pretty!

Pandora said:One interesting zinnia in that row. It's hidden top left of other photo.

Hi Pandora,

The only zinnias in your selection that should have multi-colored petals like that are the Zowie Yellow Flames. They are supposed to develop a very tall pollen producing center that butterflies love, so keep an eye on it. I like multi-colored petals, so I grow some Whirligigs and cross them with larger zinnias.

You can get some interesting results by crossing zinnias with each other. You don't have to have anything particular in mind, and you can just let the zinnias surprise you. After doing a little cross pollination, you will find that zinnias can be full of surprises.

ZM

Just planted a small pot of Zinnias this year. The butterflies really seem to like them though. So colorful