Zany for Zinnias

7 July 2019

I don't have any systematic photo record for last year's crop of zinnias, but I remember them being lovely.   Most of my plants came up simply through a process of natural reseeding from the 2018 crop.  Never one to rip out the dead plants as soon as the frost gets them, they had plenty of time to settle onto the pots and ground below.  Come spring, they just simply volunteered.  (I believe I did some thinning and transplanting to even things out, and watered of course.)

11 July 2019

13 July 2019

13 July 2019 - Note: toad on the ground nearby.

16 July 2019

 The end of last season, I went along and marked the plants for blooms I liked best.  Once they were all dried and skeletal, I collected seeds from the marked stalks, and carefully tucked them inside over the winter. Come spring, I planted them.  I didn't manage to do it all in one weekend.  For better or worse, the process stretched over the better part of a month (meaning I have seedlings of all ages at this point).  In 6 different spots.  Given that today is June 10th, they have a month before I can compare them to last year.  I have worked very hard to put many fewer per cement block cell.  My hope is that the plants will be bushier?  It may not look as mixed when you stand back? I can't imagine.  And no, I don't really remember which ones I liked, so what they end up being will be a surprise.

There's a lot of hope out there...

---

Where do they come from? What do we know about their origins?

Apparently they have a colorful history!   If you Google "garden history zinnias" you get lots of references. There is even a new book on the subject, just released this spring, A History of Zinnias: Flower for the Ages, by Eric Grissell

Random fact: They are one of the top 10 garden annuals in America these days.
Random fact:  they were used at ISS and were able to grow in zero G

"Experimentation aboard the International Space Station has demonstrated the capability of zinnias to grow and blossom in a weightless environment" from Johnston, Ian (16 January 2016). "First flower grown in space shows there is 'other life' out there". The Independent newspaper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinnia


https://harvesting-history.com/the-zinnia-a-flower-for-all-gardens/
The Zinnia – A Flower for All Gardens – A Little History and Some Growing Instructions
(can't spot the author right off)
Will take notes soon.  Writing was engaging.  No bibliography.

This one also looked interesting:
https://awaytogarden.com/diversity-marigolds-zinnias-old-new-marilyn-barlow/

http://www.highplainsgardening.com/journey-zinnia
Journey of the Zinnia
By Angie Hanna, June 12, 2013

"In the case of zinnias, they were first noted by the Spanish in Mexico during their conquest of the Aztecs in the early sixteenth century. But it wasn't love at first sight, as it was with many plants officers and merchants brought back to Europe. The Aztec's name for zinnias was “eyesore” which the Spanish called mal de ojos, because of their ever-present, small and dingy purple or dull yellow blossoms."
Eventually re-introduced in Germany by Gottfried Zinn (1727-59) [Note from another source: he provided the first European written description of the plant]
"As new plants flooded in from around the world, botany flourished. Many of the educated across Europe took up the study of botany either outright or as a sideline. Dr. Gottfried Zinn, a German doctor at the Gottingen University who adopted this trendy hobby, was sent an envelope of seeds by the German Ambassador to Mexico in 1750. Though dying young at the age of 32, in addition to becoming the director of the botanic garden at the University of Gottingen, writing an important work on the anatomy of the eye, and a description of the flora around Gottingen, he introduced “eyesore” or mal de ojos, to a few gardens in Europe."

More than a hundred years further, in the 1880's, French horticulturists began to experiment with zinnias, named in Dr. Zinn's honor by Linnaeus. Zinnia haageana, Z. peruviana and Z. elegans are three (of nearly 20) zinnia species that provided the best results. As with most new flower introductions, zinnias became the rage, especially in England, where gardeners where keen on growing anything exotic. Due to the zinnia's providence, English gardeners had a hard time of it, lamenting their sickly (at best) plants looked nothing like the robust specimens growing in Italian gardens. Being native to the hot, sunny and drier climates of SW United States, Mexico and Central America, zinnias faired none too well in Britain's cool and cloudy climate.

Finally, at this point, zinnias caught the attention of American gardeners and growers. Luther Burbank and later, his head gardener, William Henderson, took up zinnia research, followed by William Atlee Burpee, Burbank's cousin, after purchasing the Henderson Seed Company. "

This reference, cited by Angie Hanna, looks interesting:
Green Immigrants, The Plants that Transformed America, Claire Shaver Haughton, Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1978.