It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 2

Lucy,

"Thompson & Morgan lists seeds for the smaller zinnias... After all I like the dwarf iris plants the best. Can't expect me to change size just because I am changing plants. :)"

There are a lot of smaller zinnias to consider, from several seed sources. In recent years I haven't worked with them because I don't like to pollinate low-to-the-ground zinnias out in the garden. I can get lower back fatigue when I bend over a lot, even from a kneeling position. However, raised beds could make it easier to work with the lower zinnias.

And, since I now do a lot of my zinnia breeding indoors, there is no reason why I shouldn't work with the shorter zinnias. After all, I can place the pots on a TV tray and work with the shorter zinnias from the comfort of my computer chair. In fact, I have some Aztec Sunset zinnias in the four-leaf stage right now, and I plan to do some interspecific crosses between them and some of my current zinnias.

I also plan to plant several different shorter zinnias in the next week or two. Mainly I hope to cross them with some taller zinnias to get some more intermediate strains with well-branched plant habits that are resistant to wind damage in the garden, and attractive in the landscape.

If you wanted to dabble with breeding shorter zinnias, there are several commercial strains that could make good starting points. The Dreamland hybrids and the Magellan hybrids are available in separate colors. I plan to plant some Swizzles and Burpee's White Wedding indoors. I like the older Peter Pans because they have a semi-cactus flower form. Zinnia Short Stuff has some large flowers for its short plant height. For really short zinnias, Thumbelina starts blooming when it is only about 3 inches high. http://www.burpee.com/category/annual+flowers/zinnias.do?sortby=default Zinnita is an F1 hybrid version of Thumbelina.

"Handy that you could do some indoor crossing."

It is handy to cross indoors, for several reasons. Zinnias are also very quick to bloom from seeds and they let you see the results of your crosses in a relatively short time, giving you the opportunity to make crosses among those results. You might enjoy dabbling with a few of the more compact zinnia strains.

"Maine has lots of snow now, Does Kansas have ice?"

This last ice storm missed us, and we have had very little snow, but it gets cold here. We expect 1 degree Fahrenheit in the morning.

ZM

Hi all,

This recombinant has a Whirligig ancestor, and interesting subtle bicolor petals. I am crossing it with various things and will self it when it produces some of its own pollen. A soft pink with petal tips near beige give an interesting pastel color scheme, and I kind of like the different looking petal shapes.

ZM

This scabiosa hybrid zinnia is still filling out its center. When the center gets "full" it will have an Echinacea-type flower form.

I don't know if I have the energy to dabble, certainly not inside. I might plant some thumbilinas though. My computer chair is a high kitchen chair from my moother in laws kitchen. Betwween snow & cold we haven't been able to go out & get my 'real christmas' chair.

Z Man.. Guess we think alike. I get from value seeds too. : ) I always looking for T&M's sales and Value seeds stuff. You are so right about Value seeds being a pain though. I have about 30 package shere that I have to figure out what they look like since ya don't get a cover envie.

Oh, the first one, I do like the differnt petal pattern on it. Remidn sme of something, but just can't place it right now.

Now the second one. Do ya see me drool!!!!!!!!! Watch wil short circuit my keyboard again from so much drooling. That Echinacea form is awesome and just know it would be a big hit. I want some that look like that, big time!!!!!!!!! Don't ya here it sayign it wants to coem to seet home Alabama. LOL : )

Hi all,

This is a picture of one of my favorite current recombinant zinnias. One of its ancestors was pictured in my message back on January 13, 2009 10:51 AM. That zinnia was actually grown outside in my Maine garden in 2007. I liked the marbled color effect back then and it is an ancestor of several of my current zinnias.

With regard to this pictured specimen, I particularly admire its marbled pink with ivory white and its airy informal open flower form, whose petals are not tightly packed. Its colors remind me of apple blossoms, and of certain roses I have seen. Needless to say, it is currently an indoor breeder.

ZM

LOL. Pack that one up too and send it this way. : ) Yummy!

What cultivar name sof seed do I need to get to try and get some echie forms?

You take some awesome photos too. They would make some beautiful calendar and wall hanging prints. I woudl havign pics on coffee cips. Have ya thought abotu doign that with some of your pics, to help feed the habit?

I like that informal form.

StarLight,

"What cultivar names of seed do I need to get to try and get some echie forms?"

There is no commercial cultivar that yields echinacea flowered zinnias out of the packet. The "echie" flower forms result from crossing scabiosa flowered zinnias with large flowered zinnias like the various cactus flowered zinnias, Burpee Burpeeana Giants, Burpee Hybrids, and such. So, to get the echinacea flowered zinnias you need to create your own F1 hybrids between scabious zinnias and almost any large flowered zinnia. T&M and ValueSeeds supply one strain of scabiosa flowered zinnias. Parks Seeds is now apparently sold out of their Scabious Mix, http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&SearchText=scabious&mainPage=textsearchresults&RequestType=NewRequest&go.x=15&go.y=9&go=submit and they are apparently back-ordered on their new "Candy Mix" zinnia (which I ordered several packets of) http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=51989&PrevMainPage=newproducts&scChannel=newproducts&OfferCode=W1H

The scabiosa flowered cultivars that I have grown in the past have had a rather high percentage of "off-type" zinnias. As an amateur plant breeder, that doesn't bother me too much because I am used to growing several zinnias to get one good one. But to "regular" gardeners, the off-type zinnias probably caused a lot of dissatisfaction.

I wouldn't be surprised if Parks discontinued their Scabious Mix because of customer complaints about off-type zinnias. However, I plan to plant my remaining seed packets of Parks Scabious Mix despite my expectancy that only a few of them will be good. I am glad to have those seeds because I know that my chances are good to get at least a few good scabiosa flowered zinnias from them.

ZM

StarLight,

As an update to the message above, I got an email from Parks Seeds yesterday, saying they have shipped my order of 10 packets of Candy Mix scabiosa flowered zinnia seeds. Those seeds had been back ordered, which worried me. So Parks still is a source of scabiosa flowered zinnias, although I doubt that we will ever see their "Scabious Mix" offered again. However, I did click on their "I wanted this" button on the Scabious Mix webpage to leave my name and email address to be notified if it becomes available again.

This attached picture shows one of my current pink breeders with an ivory picotee bicolor effect.

ZM

Interesting flower, are there others of that type on the market or are you the only source?

ZMan. I wil try to remember to call Park's Monday and see if they have any of the Scabiosa Mix. If I cna get ahold of some will gladly share them with you or anybody else who would like some.

Another pretty one. Don't think you really have to many dogs in your bunch. I imagine that as the mor ya breed and work with them more yoru able to stop gettign compost pile ones a lot easier?

Lucy,

"...are there others of that type on the market or are you the only source?"

I am not a "source". I produce hybrid zinnia seeds for my own consumption, but I am not a supplier of zinnia seed. This is just a hobby for me, and not a business. At this stage, my hybrid zinnias have complex ancestry and do not come true from seed. They wouldn't be suitable for trading with even another amateur zinnia breeder.

At some time in the future I might be able to trade semi-stable strains with other zinnia hobbyist breeders, but I have absolutely no intentions to "go commercial". For the time being I am just a source of information on how anyone who is interested can produce their own unique zinnia strains, by hybridization or simple selection and seed saving.

The bicolors (and tricolors) that you refer to are available in commercial cultivars, such as the Whirligigs, Carrousels, and Zig Zags.

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=2177&PrevMainPage=advsearchresults&scChannel=Annuals%20AS&SearchText=p16.v226;p13.Zinnia;p16.v230&OfferCode=W1H

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/product.aspx?category=58&subcategory=135&scommand=page&qstateid=6d7c6ecd-7770-4885-84ee-767eab015554&sp=3&item=1536

http://www.veseys.com/us/en/store/annuals/zinnia/zigzagzinnia

It is interesting to make selections from those cultivars, as well as to cross them with each other and with other different zinnia strains. I have been doing that.

ZM

StarLight,

"I will try to remember to call Park's Monday and see if they have any of the Scabiosa Mix."

They probably won't have any Scabious Mix, but apparently they do have the "Candy Mix" http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=51989&PrevMainPage=newproducts&scChannel=newproducts&OfferCode=W1H which is probably as good or better than the discontinued Scabious Mix. I ordered 10 packets of the Candy Mix, which should be enough to hold me for a while. And I still have a few packets of Scabious Mix that I purchased before they discontinued it, and I will plant those as well. Fortunately zinnia seeds keep well for several years if they are stored under reasonable conditions.

ZM

Hi all,

The scabiosa hybrid in this attached picture is similar to, but different from, the one shown back on January 28, 20099:12 AM.

The two different types of central florets are not ideal, but I like the three-color effect in the guard petals. There is some pink at the base of the petals that doesn't show up well in the shadows on the picture. The same was true of the previous picture.

I will also save seeds from this one, hoping for zinnias that are better than this one. But I am aware that most, if not all, of its progeny will be single "daisies" or otherwise not desirable. But there is the off chance that something really good could come from this one. Fingers crossed.

ZM

Hi all,

I have found that it is easier to pollinate zinnias inside in my indoor growing setup, as compared to outside in the garden. That is primarily because the indoor environment has no interference from insects or wind. Up until recently I have been using the old tried-and-true technique of picking a pollen-bearing floret with tweezers, twizzors, twissors, or forceps and rubbing the floret on the stigmas of the female flower. That technique, in effect, uses the floret as a disposable brush to apply the pollen.

I have been noticing that many of my florets, indoors in the absence of wind or insects, produce a relatively heavy pile of pollen in the center of the floret in the morning. As I approached a stigma with such a floret, little piles of pollen would fall out on the petal before I got the floret onto the stigma. In order not to waste that pollen, I used a fine pointed artists brush to pick up the pollen from the petals where it had fallen and gently deposit it on the stigmas.

That got me to thinking, why not pick up the pollen directly from the centers of the florets using the artists brush, and apply it to the stigmas with the brush? I have been doing that for the last several days, with apparent success.

Breeders of other plants have routinely used small brushes to transfer pollen, so this isn't anything new. But zinnia breeders have used the florets directly because they are handy. I won't know for sure how well the brush technique is actually working for my zinnias until a few weeks from now when I am harvesting green seeds to start a new generation of hybrid seedlings. But it appears to be working, because the stigmas are dying, as they do after they have been successfully pollinated. The hairs of the artist brush appear to work as well as the hairs on the bees that pollinate zinnias.

This attached picture shows of the artists brush touching a floret to get some pollen on the tip. Sometimes just touching the pollen in the center of a floret is all that it takes to get a load of pollen on the brush tip. Sometimes, especially when I am returning to a floret for some more pollen, I rotate the brush a little to help pick up pollen from the floret.

ZM

Hi all,

The attached picture shows the artists brush being used to deposit pollen onto a zinnia stigma. I chose that zinnia as a breeder based on the wavy edges of the petals, which give it a frilly look. I look for differences in flower form, as well as flower colors, color patterns, and plant habit.

ZM

You must have known I was headed here. LOL

Both those pics are stunning. They need to be made into portraits, seriously.

Are you using a horse haired brush? I usually pull and dab, but on soem plants it is just to hard, I had tried using paint brushes one time, btu the problem I foudn is that the pollen would stil fall fromthe brush as the hair smoved andmaybe miss pollinating for sure, and I would have to dab again to be sure and that soetimes there not enough pollen to hit a second time.

I started using q-tips , for my hands they seem to work better. I roll the q-tip and gather the pollen and then gently rol it backout again. I do by the Q-tip brand instea dof generic, foudn out that th egeneric one s wil unroll the tops on ya and make a mess.

I have found that Q-tips are useful on the smaller plants.

StarLight,

"Are you using a horse haired brush?"

I am using artist brushes with tapered white nylon bristles, because that is what I happened to have on hand.

Lucy, I will experiment with Q-tips, to see how well they work for me. The two brushes that I am currently using came from a packaged set that I purchased in an arts & crafts store several years ago. When I have some time on my hands, I enjoy a little amateur painting, using acrylics, alkyds, or oils. But it has been years since I did any of that.

I like the smaller round pointed brushes for zinnia pollination, because their sharp tips allow picking up just a little dab of pollen and precisely placing it on a stigma. The sharp tips also allow accessing the stigmas inside the lower florets of the scabious-type zinnias.

"I usually pull and dab, but on some plants it is just too hard. I had tried using paint brushes one time, but the problem I found is that the pollen would still fall from the brush as the hairs moved and maybe miss pollinating for sure, and I would have to dab again to be sure and that sometimes there is not enough pollen to hit a second time."

The zinnia pollen seems to stick to my white nylon brushes rather well. Dropping pollen from the brush has not been a problem for me. Perhaps static electricity has something to do with it. I guess I will purchase a few different artists brushes to see if I like any of them better than the white nylon. I'm interested to see if the pollen shows up better on black brushes.

I do like not having to pluck out the florets, because that gives them the opportunity to form floret seeds. Floret seeds have an easily identifiable appearance and it is almost certain that they are selfed. So I can segregate them if I want to. For a really good breeder you want to get as many seeds as possible, selfed or hybridized. I am attaching a picture of another frilly pink breeder and I have been using my white nylon brushes to use its limited amount of pollen as efficiently as I can and also to cross-pollinate and self its stigmas as much as possible.

ZM

Is there a brand name on the brushes?

Lucy,

"Is there a brand name on the brushes?"

Yes, the brand of the brushes I am using now is Loew-Cornell. The particular package I got was numbered 656 and labeled Acrylic Handle Beveled Edge White Nylon. I don't remember for sure, but they probably came from a Michael's store. The handles are a clear yellow acrylic. They seem to work OK, but there may be other brushes that work better.

I suspect that any synthetic fiber tapered bristle round brush could perform as well or better. I plan to purchase a few different synthetic fiber brushes, as well as a sable or two, and compare their performance in transferring zinnia pollen. There is a wide range of choices online http://catalogs.shoplocal.com/danielsmith/index.aspx?pagename=circularlarge&fsid=&pagenumber=62&circularid=13678 and in local arts and crafts stores. Sable brushes tend to be expensive, http://catalogs.shoplocal.com/danielsmith/index.aspx?pagename=circularlarge&fsid=&pagenumber=60&circularid=13678 particularly in the large sizes. Fortunately only small brushes are needed for pollination.

I plan to stick with the Round style of brushes for the time being, and in the smaller sizes, but not in the super small sizes, which can have only a few hairs. In the ideal case, the zinnia pollen will stick to the brush hairs, but not so much that the pollen won't release to stick on the zinnia stigmas. Considering how many kinds of synthetic brush hairs there are, hopefully there is at least one kind that is a happy medium in sticking to the pollen and releasing it.

ZM

Hi all,

I have learned from experience that offsprings from hybrids involving scabiosa flowered zinnias result in a lot of single flowered recombinants, which I discard, but occasionally something promising turns up. The specimen in this attached picture has scabiosa genes and looks like it may develop into a good echinacea flowered bloom.

I like its long down-sloping petals and upstanding florets. Those florets are somewhat larger than average and I hope that, if I grow enough scabiosa flowered hybrids, that a lucky recombination of genes, or a mutation, or both, will result in a breakthrough to really large florets. Zinnia breeding involves technique and luck.

ZM

I really like that one. It will be interesting to see where hybridizing will go with it.

Karen

ZM As a general gardener I hope the coneflower type doesn't persist. It is interesting from a breeding point of view, but I, personally, don't care for that form, it reminds me of wilting flowers. that is just a personal thing, just you don't prefer the singles. Luckily we don't all like the same thing.

Lucy,

"...but I, personally, don't care for that form, it reminds me of wilting flowers. that is just a personal thing..."

I got sort of the same impression when I saw my first real Echinaceas, although their down-sloping petals didn't particularly "turn me off". But all ornamental plants are subject to varying human preferences, and I agree with you that it's all subjective and it is good that we don't all like the same things.

I wasn't specifically breeding for the down-sloping petals, but when I saw them I thought, "that looks even more like an echinacea than most of my echinacea flowered specimens." As I am selecting for an echinacea flowered strain of zinnias, I will accept various down-sloping and up-sloping configurations for the long petals. Anything with a bushy center and longish petals will be accepted by me for that strain.

As you say, I don't prefer the singles and I do discard them. I have several queued up for discard processing right now. I pull them out of their pots and shake a lot of the growing medium off of them into a big bucket to re-use the growing medium. And I toss the rest in the trash, because I don't have a compost pile at the present time. Since we moved here to Wellsville, I am uncertain whether the town ordinances permit compost piles, although I will look into that. I always had at least one compost pile going in Maine, and sometimes as many as four.

As I mentioned, not all of my echinacea specimens have those steeply down-sloped petals. This attached picture is a current example. Admittedly, it looks a bit more like a sunflower than an echinacea. But its central florets qualify it as a "keeper" for me.

ZM

I am going to try this I planted some with my kids and candy cane, green envy, purple and cactus have already sprouted. I will be planting more when it gets warmer and I can use the greenhouse.

noQ,

Welcome to this message thread. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I hope you enjoy experimenting with raising zinnias indoors. Zinnia seed don't cost a lot, so you can get started without a big investment.

A lot of people don't think of zinnias as house plants, but if you have reasonably bright fluorescent lights, they can do quite well. I have succeeded in raising zinnias from seed to seed indoors under my Home Depot commercial shop lights (which cost only about $8 per 2-bulb fixture). Growing indoors lets me enjoy this hobby year long. I wish I had a greenhouse so I could do this on a larger scale. Hopefully a greenhouse is in my future, but we are renting now, so a greenhouse will have to wait for a year or so.

Over the years I have accumulated a number of fluorescent fixtures and chrome steel wire shelves to use as plant stands. I am attaching a picture of my current setup as it was several weeks ago. Many of the plants in that picture are blooming now, and I am cross-pollinating them. When Spring comes, I will be transplanting a lot of my favorite zinnias outdoors.

ZM

Quite a set-up. It is nice to wake up to different plants every day.

Our main iris mentor is eastern MA told us if something different turned up in hybridizing, chase it & see where it goes. Obviously you are doing so. That attitude led to the "new" colors in siberian iris. They weren't new, just had not been explored. The same goes for zinnias as you demonstrate so well.

Great set-up. : ) What in the water jugs? I nosey. sorry. ; )

Looking at your stands I just realize that mien isn't goign to work. I dont have that much space between my shelves and no way to enlarge it. I gonna need another taller self just for zinnas.

I like the echinacea ones. think i liek the downward better than the flat out though. It debatable. I liek them all. : )

StarLight,

"What is in the water jugs?"

Good question. Our tap water is both fluoridated and chlorinated. Chlorine is definitely not good for plants, so we have a PUR water filter mounted on our kitchen sink water spigot, to remove the chlorine (and various heavy metals and other bad things) when we switch our kitchen sink water through it. By design, the PUR filter does not remove the fluoridation, because the fluoride is meant for dental health. I don't know what effect, if any, the fluoridation has on my zinnia's health. At some time in the future I may look into getting a filter that removes both fluoridation and chlorination. But, for the time being, I use the PUR filtered water for my indoor gardening. So all of the water in the jugs is filtered for use in the plant stands.

The growing medium that I use (a custom Fafard 52 Mix) has essentially no nutrient content, so I add soluble nutrients to the water that I use on my plants. So those water jugs contain various dilute solutions of commercial soluble nutrients. Since sterile growing mediums don't contain the soil microbes necessary to break urea down into usable nitrate and ammonium ions, I always use urea-free nutrients. It has been said that urea can build up to harmful levels in sterile growing mediums. I haven't tested that, but to be on the safe side I choose only urea-free formulas. That means I don't use Miracle-Gro indoors, although it is just fine outdoors.

When I was a little kid I really enjoyed a chemistry set that I got for Christmas. I guess I am still a little kid at heart, because I enjoy the chemistry of providing nutrients for my zinnias. I am basically doing a form of hydroponics in my plant stands, because the growing medium itself provides no nutrition for my zinnias. That means that my "complete" nutrient formulas (Better-Gro Orchid Plus and Better-Gro Orchid Bloom Booster) aren't really complete. For one thing, they don't contain any calcium, so I use calcium nitrate as a soluble form of calcium. People who grow plants hydroponically usually use calcium nitrate, and I got my calcium nitrate from a hydroponics supplier. I also have magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) in separate solutions, for extra magnesium and sulfur feeding. I also have separate solutions of trace elements and separate solutions of plant growth regulators. I also use a separate solution of potassium silicate, because zinnias can use quite a bit of silicon to strengthen cell walls, which is said to make them healthier, stronger, and disease resistant. My solutions are all fairly dilute, at about ½ teaspoon per gallon, sometimes a little more. So those jugs of water that you noticed are a virtual chemistry set for my zinnias.

ZM

complicated, but interesting. grandchildren? If so I'm sure that they will get chemistry sets in the future. The Milwaukee water when I was growing up came from Lake Michigan of course. It is a limestone area, but I don't think that there was that much attention to the water content.

Hi all,

That down-sloping "echie" pictured back on February 9, 2009 11:15 PM has straightened up a bit as it filled out in the center. Maybe it is trying to please you, Lucy. I don't know if any of my grandchildren are ready for a chemistry set just now. I'll have to check to see what they are putting into chemistry sets nowadays.

ZM

This message was edited Feb 16, 2009 10:12 PM

Hi all,

Recombined Scabiosa flowered genes usually result in single flowers, but sometimes they cause the petals toward the center of a zinnia flower to do strange things. The attached picture is an example. That is questionably decorative, but I am going to save seeds from it to see what they do.

ZM

Lovely color on the red violet plant. Please Me? I just frightened it.

ZM.. That one put on a special show for sure. Definately looks lots better and a keeper I would say. Amazing how it did that. : )

I thought epsom salt had mg and ca in it both. from yoru list looks like maybe I need to seriously think abotu giving mine a whole complete new fert program.

StarLight,

"I thought epsom salt had both mg and ca in it."

Epsom salts is chemically magnesium sulfate, so it has no calcium. For soluble calcium you will need something like calcium nitrate. Epsom salts supplies both magnesium, which is an essential component of chlorophyll, and sulfur, which is an essential component of proteins.

"...from your list, it looks like maybe I need to seriously think about giving mine a whole complete new fert program."

Well, you could get by with just complete urea-free soluble nutrient products like Better-Gro Orchid Plus food and/or Better-Gro Orchid Bloom Booster and calcium nitrate. Both Better-Gro products already have micro-nutrients like magnesium, sulfur, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. But they have no calcium, so you need to supply that separately. The Better-Gro products are available in some garden centers and in Lowe's Home Stores. If you have a local hydroponics supply store, you could probably get calcium nitrate there. You can also get calcium nitrate online at Hydro-Gardens, http://www.hydro-gardens.com/fertcomp.htm or at Everybody's Garden Center: http://www.everybodysgardencenter.com/april/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=54&cat=Nutrients+-+Chemicals

Everybody's Garden Center sells a pound of calcium nitrate for $1.39 plus shipping and, since you dilute it to about ½ teaspoon per gallon, a pound will last you quite a while in an indoor gardening project. Probably several years. So the calcium nitrate doesn't cost much. For outdoor gardening, you can use much less expensive calcium sources, like lawn lime (calcium hydroxide plus magnesium hydroxide) and gypsum (calcium sulfate). Some garden soils already have sufficient calcium. I generally add some gypsum and lawn lime outdoors "just to be on the safe side."

A pound of Better-Gro nutrient also lasts a long time because you also dilute it a lot: ¼ teaspoon per gallon for small seedlings, ½ teaspoon per gallon for larger seedlings, and usually no more than 1 teaspoon per gallon for blooming plants.

ZM

Hi all,

Some of my Aztec Sunset zinnias are coming into bloom now, and I am pollinating them with some of my chosen breeders. Both Aztec Sunset and Persian Carpet are cultivars of Z. haageana. Since all of my current zinnias are derived from Z. violacea (also referred to frequently as Z. elegans), if I get any viable seeds from these crosses, they will be interspecific hybrids.

This will be some new territory for me, and I am quite curious whether these interspecific crosses will produce viable seedlings, and what they will look like, and how they can participate in my zinnia breeding project, if at all. Aztec Sunsets are just re-selected Persian Carpets. A picture of my purple and white Aztec Sunset is attached. In past years, I have had Persian Carpets that looked just like this. Since this picture was taken a few days ago, I have "powdered" it with pollen and the stigmas have all withered, which could be a sign that successful crosses have occurred.

ZM

This is another of my Aztec Sunsets that I have cross pollinated with my breeders. It, too, now has withered stigmas. I wonder if I will now be having brown hybrid zinnias.

ZM

This message was edited Feb 22, 2009 10:21 AM

What color were the others that you used in the crosses?

Karen