4 tips on caring for Zinnias

Picking Zinnias for your yard is like being a child in a candy shop. They come in all colours and patterns and are easy to cultivate. These tips will help you make the perfect choice.

These care-free annuals are super easy to grow from seed and blossom weeks after sprouting. All of these seed mixes boast a broad range of shades including every colour except blue. While the first Zinnias on the market had single flowers, pompon, dahlia-flowered, ruffled and quill-petal types are now gaining supremacy. Zinnias make the strongest splash if you mix their festive colours together in masses.

All Zinnias naturally develop numerous flowering stems, so no pruning is required. They also don't need staking.

• Zinnia Elegans is great for eye-catching colour and cut flowers.
• Z. angustifolia is petite and also called narrow-leaf or spreading Zinnia, is a hardworking annual for the garden. Naturally disease-resistant, it's ideal for adding to borders in midsummer, when perennials sometimes stop blooming. It stands 30 centimetres tall, with small flowers in white, yellow and copper.
• 'Peter Pan' and 'Thumbelina' are ideal as a colourful feature that don’t dominate your flower displays as they only grow to 30 centimetres high.
• 'Peter Pan' and 'Thumbelina'
• 'Candy Stripe and 'Ruffles' grow to on metre in height so if you want a real presence in your yard, go for these varieties.

Interspecies Hybrids

• 'Profusion' series, combine the flower size and colours of regular zinnias with the care-free culture of narrow-leaf zinnias.
• Adaptable and prolific, zinnias range in height from 30 centimetre dwarfs, such as 'Peter Pan' and 'Thumbelina' mixes, to one metre head-turners, such as 'Candy Stripe and 'Ruffles'.

Zinnia seeds germinate quickly and easily in warm soil, so wait until summer is in full swing to sow seeds or transplant seedlings. Keep the following in mind when caring for your Zinnias.

• Although Zinnias are tough when water is scarce, they perform best if given supplemental water early in the season if there is no regular rainfall.
• Later on, dry weather will prevent fungal diseases, like leaf spotting and powdery mildew, which often cause white powdery patches to form on leaves in humid weather.
• To prevent it, keep leaves dry by watering at soil level, avoid watering in the evening, space plants 30 to 35 centimetres apart to allow air circulation and choose disease-resistant types, such as 'Oklahoma' and 'Profusion'.
• For the middle of the garden, select a taller type, such as 'Oklahoma', a bright beauty with good disease tolerance.
• Use dwarf zinnias, such as 'Dreamland', to edge a bed in a ribbon of blooms.

Zinnias are one of the easiest and most plentiful cut flowers to grow for fresh arrangements. Given fresh water every couple of days, zinnias will stay in prime condition in a vase for more than a week.

Zinnias are some of the most versatile flowers for yard design with their great choice of colours and hardiness. These tips will help you make the right choice for your yard and grow them with success.