Hello carebear,
Well, the rain arrived a little sooner than I expected, but I was covering my last seeds in my Razzle Dazzle bed as the first drops began to fall. So I put all my tools in the garage, had lunch, and watched a little TV.
carebear2056 said:I am curious to find out about growing zinnias in FL too. I hope it wont be too hard. I hope nematodes don't like them.
Nematodes are fairly ubiquitous, so I assume they are present in both my outdoor zinnias and my indoor zinnias. There are many species of nematodes and I seem to recall that there are even some nematodes that feed on other nematodes. Nematodes may have other natural enemies. I don't know what symptoms nematodes might cause in zinnias. Researching that is on my "to do" list. I don't think they have been a problem in my outdoor zinnias, but indoor zinnias might be a different matter.
carebear2056 said:I am not sure what height I prefer yet. I do like cutting them so I can admire them within the comfort of the air conditioner when it gets too hot, so I guess I would say taller types for stem length. However, there are lots of different sized vases and I've been thrift store hunting for short ones to display my button boxes, ha. What height do you prefer? Do you also prefer a flower size?
I prefer taller zinnias, because I don't like to stoop or kneel to work with them. I also prefer large flower size, and hope to increase that in the strains I am working on. My Razzle Dazzles are particularly under-sized bloom-wise, and that is one reason I will be growing quite a few of them this Spring, looking for larger specimens to use as breeders.
carebear2056 said:As for cross breeding, when do you actually do it? It took me a little while to understand that the flower takes days to fully open. I was cutting them and bringing them inside before they were fully open. I am still not sure what that does to the development. I know some flowers open up anyway but not sure with zinnias yet.
Individual zinnia blooms can take from a week to a month to develop fully, depending on the specimen.
I am going to close this message now, because we are getting some thunder, and I don't want the room to go dark while this message is in progress.
ZM
