Both are correct.

Since it's a Mexican flower, you can be sure no self-respecting Mexican (or even a self-loathing one) would ever say a short sound "i". In Spanish it would be said with the "ee."

But, north of the border we say what we wish. My relatives live in Rio Grande, Ohio, pronounced "rye-oh grand." They told me that when the townsfolk were trying to get a name for the town, they happened to read about some battle down there in Texas, and they liked the name of the big river when they read it in the newspaper. Obviously there were no Mexicans in that part of Ohio then, so if the story is true, thus came "Rye-oh Grand" Ohio. You can also go to Alabama and visit "la-FAY-ett" down in the southern part (sorry to the French) and then head on over to Georgia to the nice town of "all-BEN-ee", which always confuses the non-natives who are not from Albany, Georgia. Those silly people always try to say "ALL-ban-ee", but I think they're probably corrected when they make such a mistake.

Oh, the list goes on and on, and it's fun to read about!

zinâÂÂniâÂÂa
âÂÂâÂÂ/ÃÂzêniÃÂ/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [zin-ee-uh] Show IPA
Use zinnia in a Sentence
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�noun
any of several composite plants of the genus Zinnia, native to Mexico and adjacent areas, esp. the widely cultivated species Z. elegans, having variously colored, many-rayed flower heads.
If you click on the link, than the speaker-icon, you'll here it pronounced.

Cheers, Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zinnia

Around here it's a two syllable word "Zeen yahs". If you get really hick you'll hear "Zeen yers".

We have a lady who practically buys us out of Zinnias every week at market who says "Zin ee ahs", but I'm pretty sure she's not a native Al-uh-bam-ee-un.

Fun thread!

Down here in the Ozarks, we hillbillies call them zin yahs. Sometimes I insert the middle syllable zin e ahs. We have lots of words here that are unique to the Ozarks!

Here is a link to my 'go to' for all pronunciations in the plant world.

The second one I do is the correct one according to Fine Gardening.

Here is a link that might be useful: FG Pronunciation of Plants

This is a fun thread! I've lived my whole life in Ga. and have never heard anyone pronounce Albany as "All-BEN-ee". Maybe it's mostly the people who live IN Albany who do say it that way. BUT, my own mother would say "zeen-yer", and sometimes she would call them "old maids". I call it "zin-ya".

Geez, it's 6:04 A.M. here, I'm sitting at the computer mouthing the word Zinnia to myself, don't want to wake DH up, don't want him to think I've completely gone off my rocker LOL. I pronounce it Zin-e-ah.

Annette

We have a couple of town names here in Texas that I hear pronounced on National News in many ways. One is Mexia, Texas and the other is Refugio, Texas. Neither is pronounced like it looks.

Mexia is pronounced 'Ma-hay-uh', but we always hear it 'mex-ee-ah'.

Refugio is a little harder. It is pronounced 'Re-fure-ee-oh'. We always chuckle when we hear 'Re-fug-ee-oh'. It is such a puzzle, we get a chuckle out of it every time.

We say 'zin-yuhs' or 'zin-i-uhs'.

Janie

Aside to Vicki7: ALL bennie is pronounced that way only south of the Gnat Line.
After fifteen years, I sometimes find myself slipping into the peculiar patois that my mother called 'South Georgian' instead of the Lower Appalachian dialect into which I was born.

That's why I used to say zeen yahs and now say zeen yuhs.

Nell

LOL, Nell, on the "Gnat Line." Native Atlantan here has always said "Zin-yuh." Wish more magazines would have a pronunciation guide in the back like Fine Gardening does.

Judy

zin - ee - uh is what we say around here. Glad to know it's somewhat of a correct pronunciation (since I get so many of the perennial Latin names wrong!)

Cameron

Since the question seems to be more about culture than grammar, I'll say, "Where I grew up, southern IA, it was most often heard as zeenia. I here both here in southern MN, but I have always said, "zinnia" simply cuz of the spelling.
gramma jan

This is very interesting to hear from you all about local pronunciations. It sounds like my mom was far from being alone in saying zeen-yuhs. You may know that they were named in honor of the German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn. I wonder how he pronounced his name. I have imagined that it was probably zin, not zeen, which has led me to the zin pronunciation. Any German speakers out there?

(Yes, I am one of those people who really like to know the right way to say things, although I try hard to not be annoying about it. You can probably guess how I say Porsche.)

Thanks for all of your posts.

ThinMan

It is a zinful, how you say, LOL?? This cracks me up, I can't believe FG either. I worked in a nursery this past spring, nobody says clematis like FG says it LOL. You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe? Pass the gravy please.

I’m from Kentucky. I have never heard it pronounced any way other than zeenyuh...until my daughter-in-law. 🙃

You may know that they were named in honor of the German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn. I wonder how he pronounced his name. I have imagined that it was probably zin, not zeen, which has led me to the zin pronunciation. Any German speakers out there?

More "Zin" than "Zeen," in German.

But what about Diervilla? To the extent that people ever speak about it at all, it seems that most people say Dye-er-VIL-a, but Merriam-Webster gives Deer-VIL-a and I have one British example of DEER-vil-a. However, it's named for a French botanist with the surname Diereville, which I would pronounce as Dee-AIR-a-vee, so maybe the pronunciation should be Dee-air-VEE-ya.

BTW, the real Albany is in New York.