Choosing zinnia for your garden

Are you looking for an annual vital flower which is not demanding but looks great? Then try zinnia and you will enjoy a very long blooming interval. That’s right, your garden will look nice and colourful for a long time . Zinnia’s inflorescence offers many beautiful colour shades including yellow, red, white, dark purple and many other beautiful colours that will make your flowerbed look wonderful. We shall also mention light green zinnias, which look rather unconventional, but great nevertheless.

Photo: Pixabay

Different flower types

When selecting zinnias try to focus on the type of inflorescence they produce. There are three basic variations on the market. These are:

• small flowers,
• cactus flowers,
• “pom-pom” flowers,
• head flowers.

Double liliputs with “pom-pom”-shaped flowers and very low stems – only 65 cm high, are very nice. Head flowers have a very noticeable middle part and skabiosa variety is a typical and very common. A well-balanced plant is zinnia haageana, which blooms with beautiful orange flowers.

Colour is very important

You may choose any colour you like because there is almost endless number of different varieties. If you love white, then you should definitely go for Nina . If you want two colours in one then Caroussel is your choice, if you prefer a bright red colour, then go for Cherry queen and if you like brindle colours then you should pick Peppermint sticks.

Some zinnias can reach 1 m

If we were to look for the most commonly grown variety, it would be zinnia elegans. It grows to about 70 cm and has relatively rough stems and leaves. Chose the yellow colour – called Canny bird. Pink Luminosa looks also great. The highest zinnia, which needs a well-protected area, is Geant de California . It grows to a height of about 1 m and you need to protect it from wind, otherwise its gentle stem will break.

Photo: Pixabay