Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 3, 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Hello all,

My, my, time does fly when you are gardening. I've been tending my outside gardening while continuing my inside gardening. I've been hybridizing zinnias both indoors and outdoors, sometimes carrying pollen from one to the other. And when an indoor plant starts to get too tall, I transplant it outside.

Most of the scabiosa-based "echinacea hybrid" zinnias have the central florets pretty much the same color as the guard petals, but this one has scarlet florets and baby pink guard petals, and I really like that feature of two different colors in an echinacea hybrid zinnia. It's definitely a breeder for me, and I am giving it special attention.

I didn't notice the tiny ants in the florets until after I processed the picture. This picture was taken in July, and the plant has since produced several more blooms. The little ants are still hanging around, but they don't seem to be doing any harm. At first I was suspicious they were herding aphids, but I haven't found any evidence of that. My guess is that they are drinking some of the zinnia nectar.

ZM