Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 5, 3 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Hi Brenda,

I have to say that you live in a beautiful area. And you have done a good job of landscaping. You have enough space for zinnias to make some significant progress.

I have grown Thumbelina zinnias in the past. They are quite remarkable, and their first bloom can open when they are only 3 inches tall, and they eventually form a nice little bush about 6 inches tall. Many years ago, before there were any Peter Pans, Dreamlands, or Magellans, I got the idea that I wanted big flowers on a lower plant, so I crossed tall cactus zinnias with Thumbelinas and got what I wanted, reasonably large zinnia blooms on plants in the 12 to 16 inch tall range. My personal name for those zinnias was "Midgets". Even then, when I was young and flexible, it was quite awkward bending down to pollinize or take pollen from a bloom that was only 3 inches above ground level.

Now that I am older, I don't work with short zinnias at all, because I don't like to bend over or kneel to work with my zinnias. I do as much of my gardening as is practical from a seated position, working on my tractor scoot or a lightweight portable garden bench or rocker seat.

If you are interested in short zinnias like Thumbelina, there are a couple more zinnia varieties that you might want to try out. One is an F1 hybrid named "Zinnita":

[HYPERLINK@www.google.com]

Another rather remarkable short zinnia is also an F1 hybrid, named "Short Stuff". Swallowtail Gardens' description is accurate: "The large fully double flowers of this hybrid formula mix reach 2.5-3 inches across and the dwarf 8-10 inch plants are outstanding performers whether massed in the garden or used to brighten sunny patio containers. Colors include Cherry Shades, Coral, Deep Red, Gold, Orange, Scarlet, and White.

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/zinnias.html#g...

Some seed companies offer Short Stuff and Zinnita in separate colors. Growers like Short Stuff because a tray of them will be covered with fairly big flowers on small plants, which makes it easy to sell the plants. The downside is they are F1 hybrids, and their seed is fairly expensive, which makes the plants fairly expensive.

If I were working with short zinnias, I would have no qualms about intercrossing several of the F1 hybrids. Such F1 x F1 crosses are actually crosses between unseen "virtual" F2 variants, so the results are "interesting" to say the least. Rose breeders make crosses between crosses between crosses ad nauseam, and it works for them. It works for me with zinnias. I am attaching a few "Razzle Dazzle" zinnia pics.

ZM