growing zinnias in South Carolina

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syp Greenville, SC May 23, 2010

Help! I know that this is extremely elementary, but I have the hardest time growing zinnias! This is my second year trying the State Fair variety and everything started out great. I got the plants from a reliable, top-notch, nursery, they looked wonderful - about 14 inches high and ready to bloom. I planted them yesterday morning, just before we had some heavy showers, so they got plenty of water, they looked great this morning and now - disaster! They're all wilted and hanging over, so I quickly turned on the sprinkler even though it's the middle of the afternoon, but I'm afraid that it's too late! Perhaps it sun is just too hot, since they're newly transplanted??

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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) May 23, 2010

Could be, Zinnias are best as September bloomers here.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 23, 2010

Sounds like transplant shock. If you plant things when the weather's hot, sometimes it can help if you rig up a little shade for them for the first few weeks until they get their roots going a little better. You also need to be careful on the water--when things are newly planted, the roots are still small and can't take up water fast enough during the heat of the day so the plant will wilt as a defense mechanism. If you wait until the following morning, you'll usually find that they perked up again overnight once the sun stopped beating down on them and the roots had time to catch up on absorbing water. Since you had some heavy rain, unless it all just ran off instead of soaking into the soil chances are they've got plenty of water. You definitely don't want to let them dry out either, but make sure and check if the soil is drying out before you water them, don't just assume because they are wilting that there's not enough water.

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