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Sep 11, 2014 12:25 PM CST
Name: ZenMan
Kansas (Zone 5b)
Kansas 5b
Annuals Enjoys or suffers cold winters Region: United States of America Seed Starter Keeper of Poultry Hybridizer
Hummingbirder Dragonflies Garden Photography Butterflies Zinnias Garden Ideas: Level 2
Hi lovemyhouse,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. It will probably be several years before any of my strains are commercially viable, but in the meantime I am really enjoying working on them. Growing, culling, selecting breeders, selfing and cross-pollinating them, saving seeds, and even growing some of them indoors during the Winter. For me, zinnias are a kind of year round hobby. And the challenging thing is that there is always more to learn about the hobby. And working with new flower forms, like the tubular petaled zinnias, adds interest to the hobby.

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Sometimes I choose to cull a tubular petaled zinnia, because I grow a lot of them, and want to improve the breed by saving seed from only the best examples. I think this one was a cull.

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These next two were kind of borderline, but I decided to keep them.

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That last one reminded me of one of those sea anemone creatures that catch little fish with their tentacles. Some of the tubular petaled zinnias have flowers that aren't very round, and are distinctly asymmetrical.

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That last one is almost triangle shaped. Since the petals of a zinnia are botanically considered to be "flowers" by virtue of being able to produce a seed, I am working toward making the petals look more like flowers. And a bunch of "petal flowers" needn't be arranged in a perfect circle. So I don't mind it when the tubular petaled zinnias have blooms that aren't symmetrical. Although most of them are reasonably symmetrical.

ZM

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