Hi everyone... new here... does anyone know what would cause a soon to be blooming zinnia to wilt over? it has lots of others stems that produced beautiful flowers... but one wilted. Thank you in advance.

Hi Monika,

Welcome to these National Gardening Association forums.

"...does anyone know what would cause a soon to be blooming zinnia to wilt over?"

I don't understand what you are asking. You say it is "a soon to be blooming zinnia" and then apparently you say it has lots of other stems that produced beautiful flowers. If it is a single plant already with several blooms and just one branch is wilted, why not just cut off the wilted branch?

A zinnia plant could wilt for lack of water. There are lots of reasons why a zinnia branch could "wilt". It could be just mechanical damage from a bird landing on the branch and being too heavy for it. A dog could have bumped into the plant. Some more description could help explain your problem, or possibly a picture of it would help.

ZM

Here is the stem








The wilted bloom and the blooming zinnia next to from the same branch






Wilted bloom


So....should I cut this wilted bloom off? What would cause this? I've started growing zinnias 4 years ago..never had a problem til now.

Hi Monika,

Your pictures show the wilted branch very well. Since only one branch is affected, and the rest of your zinnias seem too be fine, the only concern is whether this is a problem that is likely to spread. The pair of big leaves next to the dying or dead part of the branch seem fine. If a kid shot the zinnia with a BB gun, some damage like this could occur.

I have quite a few zinnias, and the only time I have seen damage like this was from a stalk borer - a moth larva caterpillar that burrows into the stem and eats it way internally inside the stem, which dies. But this doesn't look like typical stalk borer damage -- they usually enter the central stem via a hole near ground level.

As long as this problem doesn't start to spread, you can essentially do nothing and watch for further developments. I'm only half kidding about the BB gun. Keep us posted for further developments. Your zinnias are a little crowded, but they seem to be healthy looking, except for that one dead branch.

ZM