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

Zen_Man wrote:
Lucy,

"How did your outside zinnia do in KS?"

Not at all well. The place we are renting has a lot of trees and the garden area was in deep shade and the soil was tight dark clay. This area is also flat, so this Spring water was standing in the garden area. It would have been suitable for growing rice. I pruned the trees as much as was practical, and got a little dappled sunshine into the garden area. To cope with the clay bog soil, I transplanted my zinnias into holes with some play sand, but still about half of my zinnias that had been thriving inside died "the death of a rag doll" in the garden. Hopefully things can be a bit better next year. Zinnias like full sun and well-drained soil.

I provided "zinnia cages" to help protect my zinnias from the wind, storms, and wandering animals. This is a picture of an outside zinnia in a cage, with dappled sun. I chipped and shredded some of the pruned limbs and used the wood chips to keep from tracking the sticky mud in the garden into the house.

ZM