Thanks, I am less stressed since my mom took over some of the costume stuff, my almost 6 year old asked for a princess party, so of course they need princess dresses, and my mom loves to make stuff like that for them. I am studying humanities at OU, they have an online program, or I would never go back to school. I may get a master's in Museum Studies...we shall see if I am up for more school. And depends on if we have another baby in the next couple years. I have a lot going on, but I am enjoying it. It's true what they say, "do what you love then it doesn't seem like work." Wish I was out for the summer, I have two classes so I can try to catch up.... We should chat at the Spring Fling! Jammie

Zinnias are my all-time favorites, but they don't do well in the summer here because of the powdery mildew. Coreopsis is also a favorite, and I'd like to eventually get all the different kinds. It attracts pollinators so well, especially the native bees which are used to it growing on roadsides and in field. I also like the annual hibiscuses, like H. acetosella, H. sabdariffa and H. radiatus. Of course, marigolds and cosmos are on that list. I want more of the seashell cosmos. They are so unusual and gorgeous.

Hi 123, Hey, great photos !!! Very helpful. " I was referring to the comments about the distance between the leaves. I think it was mostly this particular [dying] plant that looked leggy. The others don't look quite as leggy and have good branching... " Yes, your pictures show some good-looking well-nourished zinnia plants. Uproar Rose is an F1 hybrid, and should be and is very uniform. I think the stretching you are seeing (and we are seeing via your good photos) is due to your 6½ hours of direct sun. Full sun is 8 hours or more, and all three of your flowers, zinnia, cosmos, and marigolds, are "full sun" plants. If a zinnia plant is getting full sun, it can be very "non-leggy", like this one.Yeah, I know, no shadows -- it was an overcast day. We did rent a place once that had the entire yard full of trees and was completely shaded. And I was wanting to grow some tomatoes and zinnias, so I used a pole saw to high-prune the trees to at least let some light through. I didn't want to kill any trees, but I was fairly aggressive at pruning them to open up some sky. I got maybe 4 hours per day of direct sun where there had been none. Still not nearly enough to grow zinnias, but I was determined and did some online research. Sun promotes photosynthesis, which converts Carbon dioxide and Water into Sugar, which the plant then uses in many ways. The chemical stuff that happens inside a plant is mind-boggling complex. But I noticed that Glycerine was one of the intermediates that was formed that wasn't incredibly complex and also had the advantage of appearing on the shelf at a drug store (or in the drug department of a grocery store, including Walmart). There are many different sugars, and they have different molecules, but fortunately ordinary Sucrose (table sugar) was a sugar that was common in plant internal workings. So I decided to try to supplement the Sun with a foliar feeding of Miracle-Gro Tomato Food, Sugar, and a little Glycerine for good measure. And I included a little Physan 20 to keep that from fermenting and becoming an on-plant science experiment. There was some Physan 20 serendipity, it also acted as an effective wetting agent. By spraying that mix on every week or two, I got a decent (but not impressive) crop of zinnias in a scary shady environment. I did make some crosses between those, and save seeds. I was growing a garden of hundreds of zinnias, so that could very well be way more trouble than would be appropriate in your situation. But I thought you might be interested to know that you can fight the shade. " ...but the distance between the last set of leaves and the actual bloom looks long on a few. Should it not stick out so much? I don't get it though, because they are in the same bed with the same sunlight, etc. Why are they growing differently? " That is a mystery. Uproar Rose is an F1 hybrid, so your zinnias should be very uniform. Long stems are considered desirable for cut flowers -- they stand up out of a vase better. I don't see any obvious micro-climates in your photos. Maybe the limited light has something to do with it. When something weird happens in my garden, I always blame the Chupacabras. ZM

Growing marigolds from seed gave me the confidence to sow many more plants from seed. Love these old fashioned flowers and there will always be room for them in my garden