Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 6, 2 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Hi Robin,

Many years ago when I first \"discovered\" the striped and spotted zinnias I could hardly wait to cross them with other zinnias. At that time I was very partial to spider flowered zinnias, and I envisioned how \"cool\" it would look to have long slim petals with long slim stripes running down them. I did do some perfunctory crossing between Burpee Hybrids and Peppermint Stick Improved. Incidentally, the Peppermint Stick Improved have the widest range of striped and spotted color combinations. Pretty much every possible combination of zinnia colors, and that is a lot of combinations.

But I became fixated on the scabious flowered zinnias and pretty much forgot about my striped spider project. Then one morning I found this specimen in my newly blooming recombinants (Pic #1).

I was shocked and alarmed. I had not done any crosses between striped zinnias and scabious types, and suddenly this striped and spotted thing seemed to threaten getting out of control. And the effect started to look more like a disease to me. I remembered that the original striped and spotted Tulips were caused by a virus disease. (The modern day version is safely genetic.) So I \"swore off\" breeding with Peppermints and similar zinnias.

That is not to say that you couldn\'t get some amazing zinnias with the striped and spotted color patterns. They are just \"not my cup of tea\". There are some blended colorations that I like. They come via the Whirligig Zinnia hybrida route, and Whirligigs are responsible for most of my zinnia variations from the norm. In fact, my entire zinnia project is probably accurately categorized as Zinnia hybrida, indicating a combination of Z. elegans genes and Z. haageana genes. Essentially all of my zinnias are now of inter-species hybrid origin.

The other pics (pic #2 & pic #3) show some blended effects that differ significantly from the Peppermint Stick effect. When you are blending oil paints with a knife, you can get some streaked effects that are more subtle and distinctly different from the \"stripes & spots\".

If you do decide to work with the Candy Cane and Candy Stripe zinnias, also take a look at the Peppermint Stick zinnias (particularly the improved strain) and the new Pop Art zinnias. The Pop Arts are currently available in Red/White and Scarlet/Yellow combinations.

ZM