Hybridizers: It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 4, 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Lucy,

"...especially if you come up with the plant habit in different colors."

And I would like to get the shrub zinnia in different flower forms, as well. Toward that end, I crossed E13 with a variety of my breeders, including this pictured zinnia, designated as E2, that had unusual tubular petals, shaped like little trumpets. Unlike some other zinnias with tubular petals that I have had in the past, E2 had all of its flowers with the same consistent unique flower form. Fortunately E2 had a lot of blooms on its plant and produced quite a lot of pollen.

I crossed E2 with a wide variety of my breeders, and I can hardly wait to see what those hybrids will look like. And how will the trumpet petal genes recombine with other petal traits, including scabious, toothy and bi-colored, in subsequent re-hybridized generations? Ultimately, I would like to get zinnias whose petals are very large open trumpets, almost like each petal being a morning glory blossom. Maybe E2 can be the starting point for that venture. I am entering some unexplored territory with the trumpet petal zinnia hybrids.

ZM