Plant Profile: Zinnias

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Zinnias are my new favorite summer flower. Last summer was the first time I have grown zinnias and I fell in love with them. The flowers are just beautiful and they do very well in the full summer sun and hot, dry winds. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the hummingbirds, butterflies and bees constantly visit the flowers. They can handle drying out between watering making them very easy to care for. Zinnias have a wide variety of colors and flower shapes to choose from. This year I grew “Cut and Come Again” and “Giant Dahlia.” These varieties did not disappoint. 

Zinnia Description

Zinnias are members of the Asteraceae family, this includes daisies, asters and marigolds. Their flowers come in a wide variety of colors: pink, purple, red, orange, yellow, green and white. The blossom shapes to choose from are single, semi-double or double. The categories are based on how many petal rows the flower has. The leaves of the plants can be lance shaped and rough or broader and softer. The leaves are a pleasing bright green that contrast nicely with the blossoms. Zinnias will bloom for 2 – 5 months, can handle cutting really well and come in many different heights ranging from groundcover to approximately 4’ tall.

Zinnia Facts

• Zinnias are native to Mexico.
• They have been grown since 1540 by the Aztecs.
• Zinnias were brought to Europe in 1753.
• Zinnias were once considered ugly and small. Spanish explorers named them, “mal de ojos,” meaning sickness of the eye.
• They were named after Johann Gottfried Zinn, a professor of botany who worked on breeding the more attractive zinnia that we are familiar with today.
• Zinnias symbolize endurance, affection, lasting friendship, goodness and remembrance.
• Zinnias were the first flower grown in space! January 2016 NASA released images of a blooming zinnia on the International Space Station (ISS). They were the first flower grown from start to finish on the space station. The project helped scientists figure out how plants would grow in microgravity. You can read more about it here.
• Zinnias were the state flower for Indiana from 1931 to 1957 when it changed to its current flower, the peony.

Zinnia Care

Zinnias are very easy to care for and not that picky. They prefer and do really well growing in the full sun and like well draining soil. They are adaptable to most soil types and can handle drying out between watering, making them a drought tolerant flower.

The more you cut the flowers, whether for floral arrangements or for deadheading, the more zinnias will bloom. The pruning encourages the plants to produce more blossoms. 

Zinnias enjoy the heat and cannot tolerate the frost. Plant zinnia starts or seeds when the soil temperature is around 60 degrees F and they will grow until the first frost.

If you have rich soil, you will not need to worry about fertilizing your plants, but if you have poor soil consider using a slow-release fertilizer, compost tea or worm compost tea.

Zinnia Propagation

Zinnias start really well from seed. This year I started seeds indoors and I also directly sowed seeds in the ground. Both methods worked but I had better results with starting the seeds indoors because I had a higher germination rate inside versus direct sowing the seeds. I have read that zinnias do not transplant well. I did not have any problems with transplanting my sprouts. I did wait for the sprouts to have two sets of true leaves before I planted them outside.

Sow zinnia seeds about a 1/4” down in the soil and keep the soil slightly damp. Sprouts should emerge in 4 to 7 days for most varieties. If you are planting directly in the ground, check the packet for spacing guidelines, but as a general rule, spacing should be about 6” – 18” apart to give the plants good air flow. 

Zinnia Companion Planting

If you do not already own “Companion Planting,” by Brian Lowell, I highly recommend it! He goes over tons of benefits for mixing vegetables and flowers for the benefit of the garden and to help maximize your harvest.

Zinnias and other “daisy-like” flowers attract bees, hoverflies, syrphid flies, tachinid flies and parasitic wasps. You might wonder why attracting all these bugs is a good thing while vegetable gardening? Well, if you can bring in the good and predatory bugs, they should help control the population of bad bugs. Some plants are believed to deter the bad bugs altogether. Zinnias though are an excellent flower to intermix with your vegetable plants to help bring in the pollinators and other beneficial bugs.

Since zinnias are heat loving flowers they are great companion plants for all your summer vegetables but are most helpful for plants in the cucurbit family. These plants are squash, melons and cucumbers. This plant family is most bothered by cucumber beetles, aphids, squash bugs, and the squash vine borer. The larvae of these pests can be managed by tachinid flies and parasitic wasps and planting zinnias will help attract these beneficial insects to your garden.

Quick Facts: Zinnia

I hope you have enjoyed learning about zinnias and will consider adding them to your flower or vegetable garden next summer! I really enjoy mine and I am excited to find some new varieties to try next year.

Happy desert gardening!

Joy Simper has a full time job as a home schooling stay at home mom. She is the one that holds the house and yard together and keeps the kids in line. She enjoys gardening, including seed starting and propagating plants.