If you’re looking for a fast and low-maintenance flower to add a riot of color to your garden beds, consider growing zinnias. Their brightly colored, often densely layered blossoms last late into the season making them a summertime favorite.
Larger zinnia varieties can be used to brighten up annual or mixed borders and are a favorite in cut flower displays. Smaller varieties are well suited for containers and window boxes or planted at the front of a garden bed.
Zinnia flowers grow easily from seed and are available in a colorful array of shapes and sizes. Vibrant blossoms are also highly attractive to songbirds, butterflies and pollinators. Plant a smorgasbord of colors and watch your flower gardens come to life.
Fun Fact: Zinnias are members of the aster family, making them closely related to daisies, cosmos, marigolds and sunflowers.
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Zinnia Seeds
Large, brightly colored blossoms are a sunny summer-time favorite.
Eric is now retired, but is still a renowned gardener known for his expertise in composting, organic gardening and pest control, utilizing pesticide-free options, such as beneficial insects.
Eric believes when you do something good for the environment, the effects will benefit generations to come.
Heirloom flowers — the ones that Grandma used to grow — will stir memories with their abundant blossoms and arousing scents. Planting instructions are included with each seed packet and shipping is FREE!
Quick Guide: Planting, Growing & Caring for Zinnias
- One of the simplest, most colorful annuals
- Attracts beneficial insects, butterflies and birds
- Start seed indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost or outside after last frost date
- Needs full sun; fertilize monthly
- Will tolerate average soil but performs better when organic matter added
- Pests include black spot, rust and powdery mildew
Sunlight: Full sun
Maturity: 60-75 days from seed to flower
Height: 18 to 24 inches
Spacing: 6 to 12 inches apart in all directions
Site Preparation
A warm-season annual flower, zinnias like full sun and rich, well-drained soil. They are easy to grow and will tolerate average to slightly poor soils. Preparing garden beds with generous amounts of organic compost or well-aged animal manure will improve the health of plants tremendously. Watch Flower Gardening from the Ground Up – video.
How to Plant
Start zinnia seeds early indoors for transplanting outdoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date (see Starting Annual Flowers Indoors). In warmer climates, sow seeds directly into planting areas and cover lightly with soil. Water thoroughly and thin to 6 to 12 inches apart after seedlings have sprouted. Once established, flowers will thrive in many conditions, even if left unattended.
Fertilize monthly with an organic bloom boosting fertilizer once plants have started flowering. Pinch the spent blooms off to extend the blooming season. Mulch to conserve moisture, prevent weeds and improve aesthetics. Zinnias will not survive a hard frost or freeze.
Insect & Disease Problems
Zinnia plants are prone to fungal diseases including black spot, rust and powdery mildew. If symptoms are noticed, we recommend the following:
- Avoid overhead watering whenever possible (use soaker hoses or drip irrigation)
- Properly space plants to improve air circulation
- Apply copper spray or sulfur dust to prevent further infection
Seed Saving Instructions
Zinnias will cross-pollinate. To save pure seed, gardeners should only grow one variety at a time or isolate varieties by 1/4 mile. Seeds are ready to harvest when the blooms begin to turn brown and dry. The seeds are contained in the very center. When the heads are completely dry, gently crush the heads between your hands and then carefully winnow away the chaff.
Eric is now retired, but is still a renowned gardener known for his expertise in composting, organic gardening and pest control, utilizing pesticide-free options, such as beneficial insects.
Eric believes when you do something good for the environment, the effects will benefit generations to come.
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14 Responses to “Zinnia”
My daughter and I planted zinnia from seed. They did well, up to about 2 inches and then apparently insects discovered them. How can I prevent this, and is it possible to save the shoots we still have?
Earwigs love to eat the tiny zinnia plants. I have found that after the plants get taller they do not like them. Find an organic method to get rid of earwigs.
I think I might be having trouble with snails. Are they a problem for the zinnias?
I had them last year and then cut them down when they dried up and died. This year, they haven’t even sprouted yet. When will that happen? Do they come back again?
Zinnias are annuals and not perennials
I had them last year and then cut them down when they dried up and died. This year, they haven’t even sprouted yet. When will that happen? Do they come back again?
Hassina –
Zinnias are annuals and do not come back year after year — they last one growing season!
Yes, they are annuals, but in the warmer parts of the US, they reseed and sprout the next spring.
You can collect Zinnia seeds to plant the following year. Leave the blooms on the plant until they are completely dried up, once they are dry and brown you can cut the entire bloom off the plant and start plucking the spent petals off. As you pull out the spent petals you will notice a darkened end part that is in a shape of an arrow, that is the actual seed, make sure it is dry and then you can store them in a paper bag or envelope. Make sure to label the envelope so you remember what they are, I always list how tall they grow and color as well. Good Luck!
I planted a box of zinnia seeds from Walmart 15 years ago. They have come up every year. I save the seeds and put them in other parts of the garden and they have come up every year also. I know zinnias are annuals, but in the mid south, they are like perennials.
Yes, I have zinnias and they come back in their own each year. I live in Tennessee. I also deadhead and plant my seeds in my garden yearly for new flowers.
I got seeds of white colour zinnia and pink colour zinnia and it grew ok last year, but this year I got another colour — it grew orange colour from the same seeds that I had saved from white and pink. How does that happen.
It is called cross-pollination. Genetics is difficult for many people to understand but think Mendel and his work in cross-pollination where he crossed white and red to achieve pink and the re-crossed to get white, pink and red in the third generation. Just like eye color there are many genes to achieve color in plants and the make up of your original plants is probably not “pure.” Plants also have both dominate and recessive genes for color. The dominate gene produces the color but the recessive gene is also carried into the next generation and two recessive genes will produce a different color. Thus 2 brown eyed parents can and do have blue eyed children if the child gets two recessive genes for blue eyes. Hope this helps. There was most likely a recessive gene present and when crossed with another recessive gene you got orange.
I planted seeds outside last year in Northern MN.
I started the seeds in very rich soil…just about an inch layer.
They grew to 4 feet tall and were gorgeous crimson.
Eye Candy ! Keep spaces between them so they can breathe.