Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 2, 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
StarLight,

Yes, you can pinch out the center buds. Try to be careful to get just the bud, but if you do accidentally get a couple of tiny leaves too, no worry. As short as your Magellans are, you could wait a few days for the buds to emerge enough to make it easier to pinch them. Potentially each pair of true leaves on the main stem can generate a pair of side branches. The side branches emerge from the main stem at the base of the true leaves.

I am attaching a picture of an odd zinnia that I currently have. It put out some scarlet based light purple petals, but those faded to yellow based lavender, and after a pause of several days it decided to put out some fresh scarlet petals, which gave the flower a rather strange two-in-one look. I plan to save seed from it to see if its progeny behave similarly.

ZM