Pinching depends on the variety. Profusions don't need any pinching. But, it sounds like you have zinnia elegans, which can be up to four feet tall. I start pinching mine after they get the first two sets of true leaves, and always remove alot of any stem that I deadhead or cut for the house. You can stake them too. Around here, our growing season is so long (into late November before frost), that I give nearly all my annuals a mid summer cut back, removing about 1/3 of the top of the plant. If you do this and then fertilize, they recover fairly fast and will look as good in the fall as they did at their peak in early summer.

Sure - seeds get wet in nature all the time. The important thing is that if you are going to save and store the seeds, they must be ABSOLUTLY dry before packaging. Collect the soggy seed or the whole flower head, lay it out on a paper plate and let it dry completely before working with it. Might take a while (a week or more) be patient. Damp seeds that are packaged rot. Good luck! Nancy

We've had wet weather for almost a week and today I noticed the white marigolds i had been waiting for have germinated on the plant at the base of the dead bloom! Everything is wet - can i still save my zinnias especially?

Winter 2013/2014 was a brutal winter for Asian wisterias! Neither my Japanese or Chinese wisteria 'trees' bloomed last spring and the Chinese one, which usually has a smaller secondary summer bloom, produced only a couple of wimpy summer blooms. This winter has also been hard so I fear there may be no bloom this spring either - although it's to soon to tell yet.... Mine are much younger plants that yours. I've never had any dieback of the woody branches like you are describing - I wonder if that is due to the age more than winter kill...? They are known to be able to live for hundreds of years so I think it's likely to be able to survive a reasonable amount of damage! If the graft union a visible bulge? i.e can you tell for sure that some of the new growth came from below the graft? If so, I'd definitely get rid of the stems arising from below the union. The concrete patio would certainly be a limiting factor in trying to get rid of the vine if it is dead. I'd be inclined to wait to see what is alive or clearly dead this spring. Anything clearly dead I'd cut off as low down as possible. Anything living but of dubious origin in relation to the graft, I'd also remove. If that means the vast majority of it is gone, then I'd remove the rest as best I could - and probably replant with something else entirely - one or more of the vigorous and hardy clematis perhaps. If I still wanted a wisteria, I'd plant one (on a very sturdy upright support) as a free-standing tree. It is much easier to prune and control them when they are kept short in a tree form than it is to climb up on a pergola to prune IMO! I'll keep my fingers crossed for the survival of both our wisterias....:-)