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

Zen_Man wrote:
StarLight,

"I know it a necessary evil, but sure do hate the words compost pile. One person's compost is a joy to others."

At least 95% of my recombinants go to the compost pile. I need to do that, because my growing space is always limited, so I plant my zinnias closer than they should be and cull them against high standards at first bloom. That makes more growing space, sun, and soil available for the remaining chosen specimens, and gives me some room to transplant out some additional plants.

I concede that ornamental plant breeding is a very subjective activity, but I select stringently according to my own breeding goals, which are fairly ambitious. At one time I considered developing some single "daisy flowered" zinnia strains, because singles do show up fairly frequently in the recombinants. And some of them look pretty good. But I reconsidered, because I prefer zinnias that are at least reasonably double.

I also concede that my tastes may not be in the mainstream. For example, the Zinnia Zowie recently won the coveted AAS award and is a "best seller" among commercial F1 hybrid zinnias. http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatal... But I don't like any zinnias that "throw pollen" and Zowie has a prodigious amount of pollen. Obviously that doesn't bother most people, but it does me. I am attaching a picture of one of my tricolors that has basically the same color scheme as Zowie, but without all the pollen. This zinnia was one my female breeders this year, and was crossed with selected Burpeeana Giants and Burpee Hybrids. This coming year I should see what the F1s from that cross look like. Any that look like Zowie will hit the compost pile.

MM