Greg Grant

It’s time to seed zinnias for the fall.

Zinnias (Zinnia elegans) are classic old-fashioned garden flowers. I consider them to be the easiest, showiest and best cut flowers that can be homegrown in Southern gardens, and I’m rarely without a bed full somewhere. They haven’t always been so showy, though. The original wild zinnias from Mexico were red and had just a single circle of petals with a protruding cone in the middle.

According to my Virginia friend Peggy Cornett’s “Popular Annuals of Eastern North America 1865–1914,” the zinnia was introduced into cultivation in 1796, with the first double forms appearing in the mid-1800s. Bernard M’Mahon mentioned sowing zinnia seeds in The American Gardener’s Calendar in 1806. In “The Flower Garden” (1851), Joseph Breck included Zinnia elegans, remarking that the “colors are white, pale to dark yellow, orange to scarlet; shades from rose to crimson, from crimson to light purple, lilac, …” He went on to say, “The flowers are handsome when it first commences the process of blooming; the central part of it, which contains the florets, as they begin to form seed, assume a conic shape, and a brown husky appearance, which gives a coarse, unsightly look.” Generally these “wild types” aren’t seen anymore and when they do appear in my garden, I remove them so they don’t reseed themselves.

In the “American Flower-Garden Directory” (1860), Robert Buist included notes on the varieties coccinea (scarlet), alba (white) and pauciflora (yellow). Today, zinnias come in a multitude of colors, sizes and flower shapes. Some cultivars have been bred for cut flowers while others were developed as summer bedding plants. All are easily grown from seed during warm, frost-free weather. My favorite cultivars for cut flowers are the large dahlia flowered types like Benary’s Giant and the smaller flowered Oklahoma series. Both are generally fully double-flowered with the former great for larger vases and the latter for smaller vases. The cactus-flowered types also make interesting cut flowers.

Besides Z. elegans, several other species of zinnias are cultivated Zinnia angustifolia (Z. linearis). This narrow-leaved zinnia from Mexico is commercially available in both white- and orange-flowered forms. It is a low-growing annual that bears multitudes of small daisylike flowers. It is an excellent summertime bedding plant. Zinnia haageana, the Mexican zinnia, is commercially available (from seed) as well. It is known for its red and yellow bicolored flowers. I have seen the cultivars Old Mexico and Persian Carpet listed in various catalogs.

Zinnias can be direct seeded now onto well-prepared soil. Keep them evenly moist for about five days or until they germinate, then gradually wean them down to once-a-week irrigation, being particularly careful to keep water off the foliage, which causes powdery mildew and leaf spot disease. Zinnia seed can be purchased from seed racks at garden centers or ordered online from a multitude of seed companies. Typically I seed a spring crop in April, and after summer heat, drought and monsoon take them out. I seed another crop now for fall.

Greg Grant is the Smith County horticulturist for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. He is author of “Texas Fruit and Vegetable Gardening” and co-author of “Heirloom Gardening in the South” and “The Rose Rustlers.” You can read his “Greg’s Ramblings” blog at arborgate.com, his “In Greg’s Garden” in each issue of Texas Gardener magazine (texasgardener.com) or follow him on Facebook at “Greg Grant Gardens.” More research-based gardening information from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service can be found at aggie-horticul ture.tamu.edu and plantanswers.com.