Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 6, 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
[quote=\"brendak654\"]Of the zinnia that I planted (with what I thought was a hint of blue), very FEW germinated and are growing...[/quote]Hi Brenda,

That zinnia probably didn\'t put out many pollen florets and hence not a lot of stigmas got fertilized. If I notice a situation like that developing with one of my favorite breeders, I hand self it with whatever pollen florets it does produce or, in the absence of pollen florets I will cross it with \"similar\" specimens.

By \"deadheaded\", do you mean that you removed the whole plant, thus \"culling\" it? Deadhead usually refers to removing spent blooms, and in your context that doesn\'t seem to fit.

Your photos indicate that you have a lot more zinnia space than I do, and that you grow a lot more zinnias than I do. I probably do more pollinating and cross-pollinating than you do. And I am working with the progeny of a couple of significant mutations. You can take advantage of your large zinnia population by carefully inspecting each zinnia bloom, looking for unusual characteristics or possible mutations.

I am attaching a photo of a recent specimen that had unusually small tubular petals.I have since exposed the stigmas on several of its tubular petals, so the bloom currently looks rather messy and nothing like that photo..

ZM