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

Zen_Man wrote:
Hi Corey,

"I may go back to my saved seeds (two years of growth in my garden). But I may give the BGs another chance..."

Benary Giants aren't a favorite of mine, mainly because they are bred so specially for the commercial cutflower growers. But you might grow both, and cross them. I like Burpee's Burbeeana Giants, and Burpee's Hybrids for large flowers. The zinnias in this picture were a cross between the two in the hope of getting larger flowered zinnias on more bush-like plants. The pink one in the left foreground did a fair job of meeting that objective.

And, of course, I like the Whirligig strain for its endless color pattern variations. l also like the scabiosa flowered zinnias, but they are kind of problematic because so many of their commercial strains have such high percentages of off-type specimens.

ZM