Season – Summer–Autumn
Plant Type – Annual
Grow From – Seed
Ease Level – Easy
Edible – Yes
Blooms – Pick and Come Again
Spacing – 30cm apart
My favourite variety of cut flower changes daily, but once summer arrives it is hard to ignore the joyful zinnias. As one of the first flowers I grew in my flower farm, their cut and come again nature made them my main workhorse and one I can never do without. Zinnias have numerous varieties and it is essential to choose a cut flower type rather than dwarf that is designed to go into pot plants.
Top Picks
Oklahoma Series – Comes in a wide range of colours from dusky salmons through to vibrant carmine. They are a traditional zinnia being medium sized, with double to semi-double flowers.
Queeny Series – Offers bigger blooms than the Oklahoma with a muted and natural palette. My favourite is the Queeny Lime Blush as it offers a pale lime green flower with a hint of blush at the centre.
Zinderella Series – Is a unique zinnia that looks similar to a scabiosa flower with large frilly double blooms.
Floret Bred – New to New Zealand these newly bred zinnias from famed flower grower Erin Benzakein of Floret Farm have unique colour tones.
Growing
Zinnias will soon become your go-to cut flower when you realise how easy they are to grow. They do not like cold weather so if you are directly sowing them into your flower bed wait for a couple of weeks after your last frost for the soil to warm up. I prefer the transplant method and sow my seeds indoors four weeks before the last frost and plant them out a few weeks after the last frost date. Zinnias are incredibly fast at germinating taking only 3–5 days, with a maturity to flowering time of 75–90 days. Therefore, you can succession sow your seeds every few weeks if you wish to extend your flowering period. I have sown seeds right through to December. In saying this if you do not have the time or space to succession sow, Zinnia’s have a long flowering window with individual plants flowering from summer through to autumn. To ensure you have lovely long stems you will want to pinch your zinnias. When the plant is roughly 30cm high you want to snip out the central flower bed. This will encourage the plant to grow branches low on the plant and produce longer stems. Deadheading will also encourage the plant to grow more flowers rather than setting seed.
Plant your zinnias roughly 30cm apart and if planting in mass they will support each other. If you are in a windy location flower netting can provide support as they are leggy growers.
Picking
Zinnias are best picked in the morning after the morning dew has dried. Try to avoid picking them in the heat of the day. To tell if a zinnia is ready for picking you can do a wiggle test. Wiggle the stem and if it remains firm it is ready for picking. Zinnias have an excellent vase life and can last for 7–10 days in freshwater. They were also a firm favourite of mine on a cake that was to be out all day, as they can remain out of water and not wilt for a number of hours.