In The Garden With Kare
Zinnias
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In The Beginning
Zinnias are something I plant a lot of. I save seed every year and my stash of these gorgeous hybrids is huge!
Zinnias are tremendous bee, butterfly and hummingbird attractants.
I typically direct sow unless I am saving a particular variety, but by the time it is all said in done in the fall at harvest, they all end up in the mixed bag. I will sow them in the garden after I have my beds prepped and ready, hopefully by mid April.
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Review
Zinnias – 2011-2020
Zinnias – 2021-2022
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Indoor Sowing
I usually direct sow zinnias because we plant so many of them now.
I till up an area in the garden or I have pots or other specific areas I grow them in and I sow them there.
If you are only growing a few or want to start cell packs indoor sowing works well, but don’t start them too early because they get large and if you are short of space for the time you sow until your planting date, things can get a tad tight!
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Direct Sow
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Notes
Annual
Botanical Name: Zinnia
Family: Asteraceae
Native: South Western USA
Hardiness: Annual in USDA zones 3–9. Flowers same year.
Plant Dimensions: 12″–20″ tall and wide
Variety Information: ½” to 5″ blooms in white, pink, rose, red, purplish, bi-colored flowers
Varieties: “Profusion”, Giants
Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Soil: – (Notes from Farmer’s Almanac)
| Soil Type | Loamy, Sandy |
|---|---|
| Soil pH | Neutral to Slightly Alkaline, Slightly Acidic to Neutral |
Bloom Period: late spring, summer
Attributes: Cut Flower, hanging baskets, attracts butterflies
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Updates –
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2023
It is March and way to early to sow any annual. But we have been working on the beds and getting ready when the weather permits us too. I am still in the process of weeding the tire patch for some zinnias. And that is as far as it goes for the 22nd of March. Long about the 19th of April, I hope to be seeing some sowing weather and have the zinnia patch done.
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2023 – The Plot Thickens
May 17, 2023 – we scratched the dirt up in the big hoop so we could sow zinnias and the next day we sowed the zinnia seed in there! Boy I cannot wait until this heads out!
2023 Update
It has been raining a lot and so I have yet to be able to get in the garden and sow anything. I suspect in a week the time will be right. It is now April 5th. It’s a little too early. Usually, we can sow by the 19th and not worry too much about frost. Stay tuned!
April 9th, 2023 – I got out into the garden and did a little weed removal. I need to get back out there and clean off the piles and then scratch the dirt up in the zinnia beds. The temperature at night will be between 36 and 55 and the day- time temps will be between, 54 and 80. Maybe sowing time will be good in a week.
May 7th, 2023 – we sowed some zinnias in our tire bed. It rained and they should pop in a few days!
We lost the zinnias in the tires. There was too much risidual from the weed killer we used there.
I want to get the large hoop area raked so I can broadcast the rest of the zinnias but with the 2 inches of rain we scored, it’s a tad too wet in there to run a tractor through.
We finally did get the area cultivated and seeded.
Germination on the zinnias took one week!
August 5th, 2023
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We tore up the inside of the big hoop and sowed a bunch of zinnia on May 17th. I cannot wait to see this in bloom!
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Best Expectations
Well, we sowed a patch of zinnias in the big hoop area and the weeds overran the flowers.
I had hoped to do cutting flowers this season, but it will be a harvest year. Next season I am going to do it differently and sow two wide rows of the zinnias, with a lane down the middle and a mow strip on each side. That hopefully should work to make weeding a tad easier. Time will tell.
This year we will yank the zinnias out and put them on one pile and chuck the weeds on another and deadhead the zinnias for seed.
Seed Swap!
Click the pic below, send it to your photos and print it! We plan to have raw seed available so leave a comment and we will get in touch.
KBE-LTD - IN THE GARDEN 2023(C) 