Alisande, The Burpeeana plant habit is another thing that I like about them. Given the opportunity, and a little early-on pinching, they can form beautiful mounded plants. The clump in your picture shows that tendency. "I may have to investigate some sort of support next year because I've lost quite a few of the long side branches. Don't know if it's wind or animals stepping on them -- or just the weight of the branch." I have in the past had serious damage from dogs, and even deer, just running through the garden, but fortunately that hasn't been a problem at our present rural Ottawa location. However, wind and storms have always been a source of damage for my zinnias, and because I am trying to breed and save seeds from select specimens, I use "re-purposed" tomato cages as zinnia cages to help protect my favorite plants. Some zinnia plant forms have a "candelabra" structure that joins side branches to the main stem at a cantilevered 90-degree joint, and that is inherently weak. Some Burpeeana plants have that structure. I try to select toward a stronger angled branch attachment. That is a work in progress. Some zinnias have a very durable "tumbleweed" plant structure that I am trying to encourage by selecting and crossing for. Some of the scabiosa flowered or scabious zinnias have that good trait. "Also, what insects eat zinnia leaves? Some of the leaves look downright skeletal at this point." I have had some damage from flea beetles and nine-spotted cucumber beetles. Also a variety of caterpillars and "woolly worms", which I hand pick when I see them. Occasionally snails and slugs will do damage, and I use Sluggo to safely control them, and a sand mulch is preventative, because they don't like sand. We have a scary number of grasshoppers, but they seem to prefer grass. Fortunately deer don't have a taste for zinnias. I haven't used any insecticide yet, but the nine-spotted cucumber beetles worry me. Try to catch your culprits in action to identify them. Check at night with a flashlight for slugs, snails, earwigs, and such. "I've been avoiding those zinnia breeding threads!" When I am in a bookstore, looking at books as I like to do, and a store employee asks if they can help me, I usually say I am "just browsing". No reason you can't do the same in "those zinnia breeding threads". You would be most welcome to "lurk" or to just make comments or ask questions. However, zinnia breeding needn't take much of your time. It only takes a few minutes to save seeds from your favorite zinnias. Even a little cross-pollination can take only minutes. Those message threads do have a lot of pictures. ZM

Thanks for not being mad Ms. Jean ,i do get overeager sometimes and totally miss stuff. Love your sunny bottom birdie. I think those are great pictures! That's definitely the little bird i have been seeing all week. They are fun to watch because they are so quick. They are really hunting the grass for bugs i guess because they are constantly on the ground flashing their little yellow bottoms :-) Thanks so much for the pictures. Awww Brenda, you dont have the little fluffy vacuum cleaner wrens? They have so much personality and are so much fun to watch. They are so naughty too :-) i just love love love them! They follow all the other birds around and see what they are interested in and then they start liking it too. That of course makes the other birds mad so then the chase begins and it looks like a game of peek a boo because they are so small and fast the other birds can never catch them! LOL....If one bird likes a nest box then the little Carolina wren likes it. If somebody hides food then the little wren eats it. If somebody is guarding a certain tree then that is the tree the wren wants to be in. If somebody likes guarding a vine then thats the vine the wren wants to be in, and on and on and on. They are so mischievous and fun to watch , i laugh all the time at their antics. They are just so naughty and cute. Wish i could send you some but i only have one pair and i would surely miss them just to much. They even pick the bugs off of our cars and every bug off every hanging plant too. Yep they are just so wonderful. Little reddish fluff balls with big beaks and big voices! LOL....I hope you get some, Brenda they are wonderful. I saw a male Northern flicker today and i never realized how big they are, and their beaks are huge too! Lol...I never ever want to make one of them mad. So pretty though and very shy. I have always heard them but never saw them. Very exciting for me to finally put a real face (and beak) to that wild call they have. He hung on the very tip of a branch to pluck dogwood berries and the northern mocking bird that guards that tree didn't mess with him either. I dont blame him! LOL...Bonnie

Calvin, on second thought, maybe you might have to do some precautionary, just-in-case hanging of yellow sticky traps against any thrips possibility...Thrips are nearly invisible to the naked eye and they don't! leave black droppings... I think that what you described as your thrips infestation 2 years ago was a type of aphid called citrus blackfly...They leave behind casings of very tiny brittle black crustings and white patches and yes! they are also from Asia in origin so if you have Asian orchids, you could have gotten that infestation... Thrips damage on lilies and roses look exactly like yours...They leave bright yellow markings almost always at the bottom of the leaf and spread upward (who knows why they like this configuration of eating) that turn to brown...Thrips damage look like "burns". My lily buds and leaves looked exactly like your photos. Huge spreading patches of brown. You can try what others suggested, but might as well hang a few yellow sticky traps just in case. P.S. on an unrelated topic, if any one of you orchid people are using a pesticide called Sevin, don't! Sevin is highly toxic to bees and will wipe out entire bee colonies because it is a poison that is carried out to the hive. Sevin is outlawed in Europe, but sadly is the 3rd most popular insecticide in the U.S.

Lovely bloom. You certainly showed restraint. Sounds like she has an amazing collection. If you go again and she allows you to take pics I'd love to see her plants. I found a nursery in Stuart, FL last week. While walking around I found what I thought was another part of the nursery filled with DR's. Some must have been quite old as they were taller then me with caudexes a couple feet in diameter. It turns out that it wasn't part of the nursery but is space rented by what I was told is an eccentric older lady who refuses to sell any of her plants. Considering that all I saw were single pink blooms I thought that was kind of odd. It was where the seed pod ended up in my purse ; )