Hi Highlander, " I didn't bother saving seeds from the zinnias with only single layers of petals, only the thick doubles." We think alike on that. I don't like the single zinnias, either. In fact, since I breed zinnias as a hobby, I usually pull up single zinnias, because I don't want bees crossing them with my better zinnias. If a cull is growing too close to a zinnia that I like, I use a hand pruner to cut the cull off at ground level, so as not to disturb the nearby zinnia. "I want to grow seeds from last year's flowers so I can hopefully ensure I end up with a good assortment of colors..." I mentioned culling. One thing you can do is to plant your zinnias closer together than you normally would, and then at first bloom, remove (cull) those that aren't to your liking. Zinnias are somewhat of a numbers game, and the more of them you grow, the better are your chances of finding ones that you like. "I just can't seem to beat Murphy's law and have all of the colors from that pack represented in the same season!" One sure way to have all of the colors from that pack represented in the same season is to plant all of the seeds in the pack. If you don't have room to do that, and I assume you don't or you would have, my tip about planting them thick and thinning them out at first bloom could help you get better color diversity. "...instead of a bunch of plants that only produce a few colors because simple dumb luck resulted in growing 12 seeds that didn't include all of the 6-7 colors in the seed pack." That "6-7 colors" thing caught my eye. Zinnias come in well over a hundred different colors. There are more than 7 different pinks. Most packets of "mixed colors" are not formula mixed from fields of separate colors, but are grown in a field of mixed colors. Zinnias are pollinated by bees, which accidentally cross pollinate a significant percentage of the blooms they visit. So a lot of color mixing goes on. And even though your zinnia seed packet doesn't say anything about F1 hybrid seeds, chances are that some of them actually are F1 hybrids, courtesy of the busy bees. But bees keep poor records, so you don't know what got crossed with what. And then, when you save seeds from one of your zinnias, you actually may be saving seeds from an unlabeled F1 hybrid, so that you will get significant variation in those F2 generation hybrids that you grow next year. Adding to the variety of colors that zinnias can have, zinnias, like dahlias, can combine two or more colors in a bloom. So the number of different color combinations can be huge. You can even get green and white. Some zinnias can look somewhat like dahlias. By saving your own seeds, you can develop zinnia strains that you like, and the more zinnias you can grow, the more you will have to pick from. I grow zinnias as a hobby, and my breeding efforts look for new zinnia flower forms and plant habits. Zinnias tend to be full of surprises, so predicting the results from just a few seeds can be, as you say, subject to Murphy's Law. ZM This post was edited by zenman on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 13:48

The big box stores in general are pretty bad in keeping things appropriate to the location. Every year, they get those god-awful little sad sticks in boxes brought in during February, when we have 2 1/2 months before it would be safe to plant them out here in Michigan. And invariably, they have cultivars like Thompson Seedless grapes that can't possibly survive here. I've also seen other gems like rabbiteye blueberries, fuzzy kiwi, etc. Mind you, as someone willing to try via "extraordinary techniques" to overwinter out of zone plants, I find it interesting, but its bad and deceptive for the novice who doesn't know the difference. As far as the enormous operations that supply plants for the big-box stores, I find it fascinating that they have such complex systems set up, yet can't manage to find enough people to unload, unpack, water, and properly care for these plants once they arrive at your local Wal-mart, Home Depot, Lowe's,, etc. I always wondered how they made ANY profit at all, given the high cost of inputs such as energy, when they are all paid essentially on commission under these pay-by-scanned-sales programs, and so much of the plant material dies in the retail outlet due to abuse, neglect, and just plain market saturation beyond all reasonable ability to sell it all. But, they must, or it wouldn't happen. I guess the good side -- some of these places, particularly Lowe's, are pretty good about marking things down dramatically to move them -- I get good bargains on things all the time. Best was a few years back at the end of season at my local Home Depot, when they got down to the "everything in small pots is $0.50, everything in medium pots is $1, and everything larger is $2" by Halloween -- I ended up getting several cartloads of nice nursery stock for next to nothing -- Buddleia, crabapples, maples, all kinds of things. Best was a grafted dwarf mounding blue spruce, original price $80, for $2.

Stage rat. you have to understand the mindset of these engineers, with genius IQ's in math. They are perfectionist's to boot. enough that, sometimes, it can drive you crazy. He'll count just about anything in a seed packet, but even he draws the line when he hit the package of lettuce seeds and opened the inner foil packet and saw way to many seeds for even his patience. I quietly sat there, grinning to myself and thinking "finally a seed packet that you refuse to play with and count." Karen, I'm the one that has been posting the numbers in the seed packets in the burpee seeds on the rack. Been doing it for a couple of years now. K-mart has the seeds in the stores in MA now. I do miss the Martha Stewart seeds they carried when they had a contract with her. She had quite a few seed packets that others didn't have. Can't seem to find a store that carries them now. Fran

Burpee's marketing is a science it's self. I usually get their seeds on store racks. Last year I noticed price and seed differences between Home Depot and LOwes (Lowes being the highest) the local Hardware store has a rack and their prices are higher than the chain hardware. The super Walmart here put out a rack in February and almost of the Burpee seed is 1.50 per packet. They also put out a later rack last year that more of a selection. I ordered from Burpee last year because they had a pole bean and a melon I wanted. Althought the bean seed was pricy I got 2oz of beans, that is about the same amount of seed packet size I get the farm store for truck patch farmer size. My brother asked me what I wanted for xmas and I said a gift certificate from T&M, Park, Burpee, Johnny's would be great he picked Burpee. My first glance at the catalog and the 50.00 would only buy 10 packets of seed! I am going thru the catalog again and picking out only what is on their seed sale rack and ordering only what I know I can't get locally. Even the equipment section was sparse for someone who has been gardening for decades.