For those who’re wanting so as to add extra colour to your backyard in 2022, you may need to add zinnias to your seed checklist! These colourful flowers are a few of the best annual flowers to develop. They’re additionally a superb nectar supply for pollinators and are long-lasting lower flowers.

Many of the zinnia seeds you’ll discover at native backyard shops are Zinnia elegans. At SESE, we additionally carry a few forms of Zinnia peruviana and Zinnia marylandica. Zinnias present a lot of selection, so that you’re positive to search out one thing to fit your backyard’s design, from the spiky-looking blooms of the cactus-flowered zinnia to the darkish crimson double flowers of Pink Magnificence. 

Put together a Mattress

Zinnias are fairly adaptable, however they want a mattress that receives full solar. Although they’ll tolerate a variety of soil circumstances, well-drained soil wealthy in natural matter is right. Spreading a few inches of completed compost over the mattress and broad forking it could actually assist your crops thrive.

Planting Zinnias

Right here within the Southeast, the simplest solution to plant zinnias is to direct sow them when all hazard of frost has handed, and the soil is round 70°F. Sow the seeds about 1/4 inch deep. Sow a couple of each 1 to 2 weeks for a number of weeks to make sure a gradual provide of blooms all season. 

Alternatively, you can begin them indoors 3 to 4 weeks earlier than your final anticipated frost. Zinnias ought to be transplanted after they’re nonetheless comparatively small, and it is best to take care to disturb the roots as little as potential.

These showy flowers make wonderful companion crops for varied vegetable crops, together with squash and beans. They entice bees, butterflies, and different pollinators, guaranteeing good pollination and wasps and woman beetles that feed on pests.

Zinnia Care

Skinny zinnias in order that they obtain good air circulation and daylight. Relying on the mature measurement of the range you choose, it is best to skinny your zinnias from 12 to 24 inches aside. Retaining your zinnia mattress weeded and constant watering will encourage your zinnias to bloom extra.

Taller zinnias might have help to stop lodging. You’ll be able to stake particular person crops, develop them alongside a fence, or allow them to develop by means of a suspended flower help netting, fencing, or different related materials. 

For those who’re curious about bouquets, you’ll be able to constantly harvest zinnias. Chopping flowers encourages them to bloom extra. For those who’re not harvesting lower flowers, deadheading additionally encourages blooming. Chances are you’ll need to let some spent flowers go to seed, particularly in direction of the top of the season. 

Saving Seed from Zinnias

Zinnias self-seed properly, nevertheless it’s additionally fairly easy to avoid wasting seed from them. You need to use it to plant new beds the next yr, share with associates, or be part of a seed swap. 

Wait till the flower heads are totally mature, brown, and dry to reap them. If the petals are nonetheless colourful and pliable, the seeds might not have totally matured. 

Harvest the mature flower heads on a dry day. Convey them indoors and pull the flower heads open. The seeds are brown and arrowhead-shaped. 

Permit the seeds to dry on a display screen out of direct daylight for at the very least per week. When the seeds are totally dry they need to snap cleanly in half and never bend. 

Retailer them in an hermetic container, checking rigorously for any indicators of moisture for the primary two weeks. For those who see moisture, place them again on the display screen and dry them for an extended interval.