Growing Zinnia

Now that I have a yard at my disposal, I keep growing various plants and keep watching them. I am fascinated with plants not just because of my educational background - I simply enjoy gardening.

I have been very fascinated by Zinnia lately because of their color, profuse flowering and summer hardiness. Zinnia belongs to the family of marigold, sunflower where the flowers are assembled into a head or capitulum.


Growing Zinnia can be a very fulfilling experience. Zinnia can be propagated vegetatively by stem cuttings or through seeds. The plant is cross pollinated, so be surprised when you plant seeds the next season. The best season to grow them is during early spring. They continue to flower through hot summer to late fall. Zinnia is mostly disease and pest resistant and needs least maintenance - although now in late fall I see some powdery patches on the leaves. It could be powdery mildew I am not too sure. The plant grows from 12 inches to 48 inches. Sometimes they can grow really tall competing for sunlight. They often have lateral branches, but this can be induced by cutting the apical bud. They occur in varied color, texture and shape. There are some flowers with only a single layer of petals, some with multiple petal layers. Some resemble rose in their shape. The flowers are often brightly colored, showy and occurs in single. The number of flowers per plant can range from few to 40-50 at a time. In order to get best results, take off the old flowers and leaves from the plant as the plant gets older.