Zinnias are a great splash of color in the dog days of summer.
My friend Susan has a fabulous hedgerows of zinnias and she shared her secret as to how it looks great year after year.
Every fall she gathers the dead seed heads, dries them and stores them in a bag over the winter in a cool, dry location. I kept mine on my unheated porch.
When the temperature is warm enough in the spring, generally not for a couple weeks after the last frost date, she coarsely separates the seeds from the rest of the dead flower heads. Then in a shallow trench, she thickly spreads the coarse seed mixture, covers lightly with dirt and once the seedlings begin to come up, does not thin them. Zinnias thrive best in full sun and are quite drought resistant.
I had to try it! We collected seeds last fall from our gardens, and anywhere we could find lovely zinnia beds in need of dead-heading, including from the golf course we play at. This spring, when the soil temperature was warm enough (usually not until after Mother’s Day here at my zone 5 home) we planted our overwintered seeds by spreading the coarse seed mixture into shallow rows.
Zinnias everywhere! I need to find more places to plant them to enjoy all the color, but it worked. Not as nicely as Susan’s, but I’ll get there.
Susan was kind enough to send me some more photos of her yard. Enjoy!
I’m not the only loving the colors!
Soon she’ll be harvesting next year’s seed head before the first frost sets in.
All ready for another year of gorgeous color!
Many thanks to Susan for sharing her photos with me. And for enticing me to make my zinnia garden even bigger next year.
Appreciate the great tips. Very lovely to see all those zinnias thriving.
It seemed like a good year for the zinnias. Already collecting for next year!
I have a question about saving zinnia seeds. I bought a mix from High Mowing Seeds last year. They were beautiful but there was too much purple and I didn’t like the yellow. I worked hard to identify blooms from the plants I wanted more of. I used different colored twist ties to id separate colors. But the seeds coming out of the spent blooms don’t seem like they could make a plant. They are the correct arrow shape and have a ridge down the middle, but are otherwise flat. How can there be germnoplasm in there to germinate an actual plant? My other question is the seeds coming out were different sizes and colors, some long and skinny, some pale creamy colored with black circles in the center, although most a uniform gray green. Still, how do I know which ones are viable?
It’s a little tricky to be sure which are viable and which aren’t. It’s normal that they are different colors, but white, cream or green suggest that they haven’t matured enough or weren’t pollinated. Did you wait to pick the heads until the seed heads were almost all brown? The petals may still have some color, but the seed part needs to be brown. It’s generally really unsightly. The seeds should be very slightly plump to the touch and not bend easily. I’ve actually never paid much attention to which are viable since I lay down such a thick mat of flower/petal/seed mix outdoors in the spring, I also don’t start them in the house since I don’t have as good of luck transplanting them as I do starting in the ground. I hope some of yours are viable for next year and you get the colors you want!
Thanks Stephi, that helps a little. Quite a lot of them are easily bendable and like i mentioned above the great majority of them are a gray green. I just opened a packet and I see some are darker, like almost black. Yes, I did wait until they were almost entirely brown. I wish I could send a picture but I guess I will just try to germinate some beforehand to see which ones are viable. I like the idea of direct seeding. Although all of mine last year I started indoors, they needed a LOT of babying after transplanting.