Zinnia show starting
I am testing out 10 new varieties of zinnias from Floret Farms this year, and I’m a little on the fence as to the initial results. The colors are beautiful pastels, but the blooms themselves are pretty small. Two of the varieties are specifically bred that way, so I was expecting that, but the others aren’t quite knocking my socks off. At least not yet. Now, to be fair, I completely forgot that I was going to give them bloom fertilizer ever 2-3 weeks, so that part’s on me. But here are the initial variety tests.
These are “Dawn Creek Pastels”. There are several different varieties created by Dawn Creek, and this is a mix.
Next to them are the “Dawn Creek Honey” zinnias, yellow varieties. I like the yellow, but you can see that only about a quarter of the seeds germinated.
Next to the goldens are the “Dawn Creek Blush”. These seem to have the least variety in shape/color.
Only a few from the “Golden Hour” seeds, but I REALLY love these ones. If I were to buy just one packet of seeds from this same provider next year, it would be this variety.
A few more Golden Hours (I think!)
This mix is called “Precious Metals”. Nice, but I’m actually more interested in those cool red celosias growing behind them!
This is called “Alpenglow”, and I take it back - if I were only to get one variety of these tests, it would be THIS one. LOVE the mix of pastels and also zinnia shapes represented.
These are “Dawn Creek Peach”. Some cute shapes in there, and a few pops of color.
This is one of the intentionally small-bloomed zinnia mixes, called “Victorian Wedding”. Cute, but not my favorite.
And this other small-bloomed mix is called “Little Flower Girl”.
Oh, and I almost forgot about this tenth variety because it is planted in one of the raised beds - This one is called “Unicorn Mix”, and I also love its variety and brighter colors.
Brought some of these beauties into the house, as well as a few of the smaller-headed sunflowers. I almost hate taking them out of the beds, but they definitely are a cheery sight on the counter!
Shout out to zinnias! The variety of shapes, sizes, colors, centers - I actually put together a Zinnia Identification package to better understand their characteristics.
I was looking for a book or even e-book that laid all of this info out and could not find anything, so I went ahead and created it using AI. I set the system up based on this “wheel” with spokes for each of the trait categories. I swear this turned out so gorgeous and informational, it is publishable. Of course, a true zinnia expert would probably find all sorts of flaws in this system, but mostly I think it helps emphasize that the “simple little zinnia” actually has a lot going on!
