Hi Pat,
I'm glad you like zinnias. We are just getting started here in this message thread, so I will start off with a semi-random subject. I have liked the idea of zinnias that have two or more colors on each petal for many years, but years ago there weren't any really good ones in that category. I grew the Navajo strain, and by the time I decided to breed zinnias there were a couple of bicolor/tricolor strains, Merry-Go-Round and Carousel. Some people said they were just the same strain being sold under different names and that may have been technically true.
But I have found that even the same strain produced by different growers, or even the same grower with seed fields in different locations, produce different results. Each zinnia field is a separate source, with the bees pollinating and inter-pollinating the zinnia specimens in that field. We don't really count on it, but a certain percentage of the zinnias in a mixed color seed packet are F1 hybrids, courtesy of the bees.
Of course, many of those F1 hybrids may not be very exciting with, say, a yellow zinnia crossed with a different yellow zinnia. In your garden you just see a yellow zinnia and, if you like it and decide to save seeds from it, you might not be aware that you are saving seeds from an F1 hybrid.
I mentioned the Merry-Go-Rounds and Carousels, but in that beginning phase of my zinnia hobby I also grew a bicolor/tricolor Canadian strain of zinnias called Zig Zag. This is a picture of one of my favorite Zig Zags. (You can see a bigger version of all of the pictures shown here in All Things Plants by just clicking on the picture. You can return to normal by clicking the little arrow in the lower righthand corner of the big picture. You can view a less cluttered version of the big picture by clicking your F11 key, and you can click it again to undo its effect.)
That zinnia was unusual in that it had wide spoon-shaped petals very similar to the California Giants strain of zinnias. Unfortunately the Zig Zag strain of zinnias was discontinued only a very few years after that picture was taken. But the Whirligig strain was introduced, and it was in my opinion the best yet of the bicolor/tricolor zinnias. I'll talk about the Whirligigs in a subsequent message. More later. If you have any questions or comments, I will be glad to respond.
ZM
