Great thanks for the reply.
Those tubular petals are very interesting. And the long leafs almost has the look of a coneflower plant. It's amazing how much variety zinnias offer. I guess when breeding them you're mostly looking for mutations as that's where the opportunity for a new look comes in.
About the magellans it's partly my fault I overcrowded the Magellan container with 8 plants when all was needed was 3..

John_fender said:About the magellans it's partly my fault I overcrowded the Magellan container with 8 plants when all was needed was 3..

Hi John,
I also tend to overcrowd my zinnias, because I intend to cull them, sometimes a lot, as part of my breeding attempts to improve my strains.

ZM

Have you tried to root cuttings of a plant you particularly liked and wanted to cross more with ?
Just wondering if its possible to take zinnia cuttings

John_fender said:Have you tried to root cuttings of a plant you particularly liked and wanted to cross more with ? Just wondering if its possible to take zinnia cuttings

Hi John,

I don't know of any gardening book that tells how to root zinnia cuttings, but there might be one. There are a lot of gardening books that I haven't read. Many times I have felt the need to take cuttings of a choice zinnia, so that I could have several plants, and use them to get a much greater supply of seeds from it than I could from a single plant. So I embarked on a trial and error process to take cuttings from zinnias.

You can put a branch from a coleus in a glass of water and it will strike roots in the water in a few days. Unfortunately, a zinnia is not a coleus and zinnia roots simply drown and die when submerged in water for an extended period of time.

So I put zinnia cuttings in a sterile growing mix (Premier Pro-Mix BX) and I applied a rooting hormone to the cuttings. Even though the mix was moist, the cuttings wilted and died in a couple of days.

So I repeated that with the addition of a humidity dome to keep the cuttings from drying out. In a few days the cuttings simply rotted. That was not a huge surprise, because bacterial rot has always eventually destroyed my zinnia cut flowers in a vase of water.

So I needed something to kill the bacteria without killing the zinnia cutting. After doing a lot of Internet searching, I found Physan 20. Many greenhouses use Physan 20 to keep things clean and healthy. Some hospitals use it in their mop water. It is a very versatile product, because it is an algaecide, fungicide, bactericide, and virucide. That's a lot of 'cides. I bought a bottle from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I2UTAQ/

I needed to find a dose of Physan 20 that would kill the rot-causing bacteria, but not kill the cuttings with a phytotoxic effect. I settled on 1 Tablespoon of Physan 20 per gallon. A little more or a little less would also work. But 4 Tablespoons of Physan 20 per gallon was noticeably phytotoxic. So I made up a stock solution in a gallon jug with a Tablespoon of Physan 20 per gallon, and added a small amount of soluble nutrients. That, with a humidity dome, Pro-Mix medium, and fluorescent lighting provided a successful rooting environment for my zinnia cuttings (which were treated with a bit of rooting hormone). My cuttings consisted of a small branch with the bud removed. They went in pots under humidity domes under fluorescent lighting.

In a little over a week the cuttings had struck roots and could be removed from under the humidity domes and put on a shelf under fluorescent lights.

So you could say that the "secret" to growing zinnias from cuttings is Physan 20. Incidentally, I have carried that a step farther, and taken cuttings from the plants that were grown from cuttings. Those produced plants that originated from a seed planted the previous year. That raised the question in my mind if zinnias might not be potentially immortal via repeated cuttings. Many fancy coleus varieties (and other ornamentals as well) are cultured from year to year asexually, either from cuttings or in some cases by tissue culture.

So, yes, you can grow zinnias from cuttings very successfully, with the help of Physan 20.

ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Update:
Magellan coral is simply stunning! Button box also a superb performer and still going strong.

Hi John,

That coral Magellan looks fantastic! I love it when a plant covers itself with blooms like that. And your zinnias look well nourished and well grown. Congratulations.

ZM

Saved lots of seeds from the whirligigs and button box this last summer. Decided to grow some under shop lights as an experiment, in the furnace room, just one plant of each type.
5 weeks later I have blooms ! The whirligig is a very fiery red and some magenta, which a colour different than what I had saved it from. The button box looks identical to its parent which was a vigurous well branched orange zinnia.. pretty cool ! Now I know to start mine first of May with the plan to plant out June 10th or so

Hi John,

" 5 weeks later I have blooms ! "

You must be doing something right. Most books say that zinnias bloom in 6 to 8 weeks. Some say even longer. I too have had a few 5-weeks zinnia blooms, and they always please me. It's really kind of remarkable that a seed can turn into a bloom in such a short time. That zinnia fast pace is one of the reasons why I like to grow them as a hobby.

Your whirligig bloom is a unique specimen, in addition to being a speed demon. That is a very unusual color combination -- orange and rose. And there is something else very special about that bloom. The back sides of its petals are white !!! Zinnia petal backsides are frequently a dull combination of greenish tissue and the petal color. Having a nice white color instead is an important advantage. It would be interesting to see what its progeny would look like, and how much variation there might be in those siblings.

I also see white backsides on petals from time to time, but not nearly as often as I would like. My tubular petaled zinnias particularly benefit from nice looking backside coloration, because their petal backside is the majority visible part of the petal. In some of my tubular zinnias, the backside of the petal is almost the only part that you see.

That zinnia would look better if its petal "backsides" were a nicer color.
Congratulations on your new Whirligig.

ZM

John_fender said:Saved lots of seeds from the whirligigs and button box this last summer. Decided to grow some under shop lights as an experiment, in the furnace room, just one plant of each type.
5 weeks later I have blooms ! The whirligig is a very fiery red and some magenta, which a colour different than what I had saved it from. The button box looks identical to its parent which was a vigurous well branched orange zinnia.. pretty cool ! Now I know to start mine first of May with the plan to plant out June 10th or so

Pretty pretty! I'm jealous because the Z. haageana I started 6 weeks ago just now have small buds. I want blooms and I want them NOW.

Ok I have to share this. Not sure if this is unique but certainly is very interesting. So this whirligig zinnia that was orange and rose is now yellow and rose ! Yes this picture is of the same flower !!
I kind of ignored the plant after the bloom as it got too tall to fit under the lights so I moved it to the side. Gets some light but not the greatest. And the leafs started curling (boron deficiency?) so it wasnt pampered but as the bloom aged, the orange rose petals dried out and new petals from the centre appeared yellow and rose ! There was pollen produced after the orange rose petals appeared followed by the yellow petals ! It appears the orange rose was semi double, and yellow petals now turned it a fully double flower. Such an insane change of colour

Here is a pick of the old petals now dried out. Notice the orange tips

Hi John,

Amazing stuff !! I am always saying that zinnias are full of surprises, and your color-changing zinnia is one of those surprises. There may be some funny genetics going on in that zinnia.

And another thing, not the same as what your zinnia just did, I have seen surprising differences between one zinnia branch and another. It's almost as if "bud sports" were a common thing with zinnias.

These are are a couple of my current zinnia blooms that I like.

That last one reminds me of a carnation. Its petal ends are extremely "toothy".

ZM