How to grow Zinnia? Keep these care tips handy
The main care points for Zinnia fall into four areas: temperature, sunlight, water, and planting density.
Temperature: Zinnia likes warmth and sun, and cannot tolerate severe summer heat or severe cold. The suitable growing temperature is 18-20°C during the day and 15-16°C at night. It grows especially fast in summer.
Sunlight: You can use full sun directly, with the sun shining straight on the plants. If sunlight is insufficient, the plants tend to grow leggy and their resistance is weaker; flowering will also be affected.
Water: Because the light requirement is high, water evaporates very easily, so proper moisture must be maintained frequently; in summer, water once a day.
Planting density: 12—18 plants per sq m. Zinnia likes a slightly moist but tending-dry soil environment and dislikes waterlogged conditions. Besides applying an appropriate amount of chicken manure as a base fertilizer when planting, during the vigorous growth stage you should also apply a dilute liquid fertilizer once a week. It is a crop that likes nitrate nitrogen, so do not apply ammonium-nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate or ammonium bicarbonate. Zinnia likes ample sunlight and dislikes shaded environments. Keeping the environment well ventilated can prevent leggy growth and reduce the occurrence of powdery mildew. Zinnia likes warmth and is not cold-tolerant; its suitable growing temperature is 20—30°C, and after frost in autumn the plants gradually die.
Care tips for the herbaceous flower dwarf Zinnia
Dwarf Zinnia has bright colors and a long flowering period, and is one of the most important summer flowers for courtyards. It can be used to create flower beds and flower borders, and can be planted in clumps or in rows.Annual herb, plant height 15-60 cm, the whole plant covered with hairs. Leaves opposite, ovate or long elliptic, clasping at the base. Flower heads about 4 cm in diameter, yellow, flowering in summer and autumn. Achenes flat. Plant height 15-60 cm, flowering from June to September.
Habits: Likes warmth, likes light, also tolerates partial shade, tolerates drought, dislikes severe heat and waterlogging. Requires fertile soil with good drainage.
Care tips: It likes light and also tolerates partial shade, so at midday in summer it should be shaded appropriately. It is fairly drought-tolerant, so water when the soil is dry, preferably in the morning or in the evening. For fertilizing, apply fertilizer once a month during the growing period, and do not overapply, otherwise it is easy to burn the plants.
Care tips for growing potted Zinnia
Zinnia, also known as, and, is an annual herbaceous flower in the Asteraceae family, genus Zinnia. Plant height ranges from 40 cm to 120 cm. The stems are upright, covered with short hairs, and rough on the surface. Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, entire, covered with short bristles, and clasping at the base. Flower heads range from 5 cm to 15 cm in diameter, borne at the tips of the branches, with long peduncles. Ray florets are in multiple rows, the petals obovate, slightly rolled backward at the tip, in colors including white, yellow, red, pink, purple, green, and orange. Tubular florets are concentrated in the center of the flower disk, the corolla tip 5-lobed, yellow to orange-yellow, the style 2-cleft. The involucre of the flower head is multi-layered and bell-shaped, united at the base. Ray florets can also set seed; their achenes are broadly ovate to bottle-shaped, tapering at the tip, slightly concave in the middle. The achenes produced by tubular florets are elliptic, flat, and small. The fruits mature successively from August to October, the seeds live for 3 years, and the flowering period is from June to October.After long-term artificial hybridization and selection, Zinnia has many cultivated types, which can broadly be divided into three categories: large-flowered tall-stemmed type, medium-flowered medium-stemmed type, and small-flowered clustered type. The large-flowered tall-stemmed type has a plant height of 90 cm to 120 cm, few branches, and terminal flower heads up to 12 cm to 15 cm in diameter; tetraploid varieties have flowers 15 cm to 18 cm across. The medium-flowered medium-stemmed type has a plant height of about 50 cm to 60 cm, more branches, flower heads about 6 cm to 8 cm in diameter, with the top slightly flat, making the whole flower head resemble a flattened sphere. The small-flowered clustered type has a plant height of only 40 cm, many branches, and a large number of flowers per plant, but the flower heads are small, only 3 cm to 5 cm in diameter, with ray florets flat and not rolled back, so the flower head looks spherical.
In the 1970s, a new dwarf type was bred, with branches spreading in a semicircular shape, flower diameter 7 cm to 8 cm, and plant height below 30 cm; the shortest mini type is only 20 cm tall with a flower diameter of about 4 cm. There are also dwarf large-flowered varieties.
Zinnia is native to Mexico and other places, and is now widely cultivated around the world. It is robust by nature and highly adaptable, with a relatively deep root system, and its stems are hard and not easy to lodge. It likes sunlight, and under long-day conditions the number of ray florets increases. It likes warmth, is not cold-tolerant, tolerates poor soil, tolerates drought, dislikes continuous cropping, and fears damp heat. Grown in the ground, it grows well in fertile plots with deep soil. For potting, a sandy growing medium containing humus, loose and fertile, with good drainage, is best.
Propagation is usually by sowing. The suitable germination temperature is 20°C to 25°C, sprouting in 7 to 10 days. Seed germination requires dark conditions, so after sowing, cover the seeds with soil so they are completely covered. Open-field sowing should not be too early; if the temperature drops below 15°C after emergence, the seedlings will stop growing and will then always grow poorly, forming "little old seedlings." When the seedlings are 5 cm to 8 cm tall, they should be transplanted once, and in late May they can be transplanted into flower beds for final planting. After mid-June, side branches can also be taken for cutting propagation; be careful to shade and protect from rain to prevent the cuttings from becoming infected and rotting.
For potted Zinnia, it is best to choose the new dwarf type and dwarf large-flowered varieties. They can be sown in pots in a greenhouse in early February, pricked out and moved into pots with an inner diameter of 10 cm in mid-March, one plant per pot, then repotted into 18 cm pots for final planting in early April. With stable room temperature, ample light, air circulation, and moderate water and fertilizer, they can bloom and be displayed by May Day.