To get you in the gardening spirit, make plans to attend the 6th Annual “Yorkton Seedy Saturday — Prairie Sun Seed Festival” on Saturday, March 12, from 12:30 p.m. till 4:00 p.m. at Yorkdale School. There are many things to see: local organic and heirloom seeds, and of course, interesting speakers.
The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m. in the Sunshine Room at SIGN on North Street; our topic will be “Quinoa”; it seems everywhere you look there are products made with this interesting grain that might be new to us but has been around for centuries! Everyone is welcome to attend!
Our seed catalogues are reading material almost daily for me, and today my attention was drawn to the vast and varied selection of zinnias. So let’s have a cup of tea and talk about this wonderful, dependable plant! Zinnias were one of the first and most favorite flowers grown in my childhood “patch”, and I’ve loved them ever since. They’re beautiful and easy to grow, so what’s not to love?
Zinnias are the Mexican/South American cousins to sunflowers and daisies, named after German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727-1759) who grew the plant after it was brought back to Europe from the new world. He was probably thrilled at the cheery little new plant that delivered so much flower power!
I did some formal homework on the zinnia, and it was described as “recommended for beginning gardeners”. So true: they are easy to grown from seed, and don’t have a lot of finicky growing needs. They like a sunny location and well-drained soil. Give them room to grow, six to eight inches apart for shorter zinnias, twelve to eighteen inches apart for the taller varieties; give them water when they are young and even some 5-10-5 liquid fertilizer ( I read that we should use ¼ strength) and let them do their thing! For bushier plants we can pinch the tips off the main stems when the plants are still young.
We don’t have to worry about bugs attacking our zinnias, but if we have high humidity we might have to be on the lookout for mildew. This is where it is very important for us to have good air circulation between the plants, and of course, not to overwater them. They dislike having wet feet.
Here’s a little factoid: I read that zinnias are “sessile”, a term that means the leaves do not have stems but grow directly from the stalk. Some flower trivia! Zinnias are also great for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds: a beautiful bonus!
The zinnia blooms are bright and beautiful, wonderful as cut flowers. They come in dozens of colors, textures and sizes, from the compact little varieties like “Thumbelina” which is very early and grows to only six inches high, right up to taller varieties like “Giants of California” which grows 26 to 30” high with double blooms up to five inches across! There are singles, there are doubles, there are bi-colored combos, and they are all stunning!
And to show how productive the zinnia can be, it was even grown in the International Space Station in January of this year! Log on to www.space.com to see an amazing picture of the flower in front of a window in the space station, with the Earth in the background, many miles away! Very cool!
So add zinnias to our “to grow” list for this year! They’ll bring beauty and color to our gardens or containers! Have a great week!
