I would pinch.

pinch and put them in a vase to enjoy ...

i would have bought them.. with the buds just barely opening.. so i could enjoy the first flower longer.. in the vase ...

ken

Pinch above the top set of leaves or lower????

One year, I experimented with pinching some zinnias and not pinching others. I didn't think the results of pinching justified the time spent. Some of my zinnias branch out quickly anyway. Others get top heavy from that single flower and lodge over. That changes the hormonal topical dominance so the plant quickly makes many new branches. I have wondered whether I should just plant them somewhat sideways to get the branching started even earlier.

experimenting is how i learned just about all my gardening ... pre WWW thats all we had to do ... it wasnt like i was running to the library instead of being in the garden ...

and the thing is.. i remembered my experiments.. longer than i did reading about it [like reading in winter.. and thinking i would remember come summer.. lol]

ken

Well they were looking good -- producing several new stalks with flower buds -- then a rabbit ate the bottom leaves off of half of them :(

I am surprised they ate them -- the leaves are kind of sticky and gross. Anyhow the flowers look fairly ridiculous without bottom leaves, but I hope they survive.

Hi Stir_Fry,

" ...then a rabbit ate the bottom leaves off of half of them "

Are you sure it was a rabbit? Sometimes slugs can take out large parts of zinnia leaves.

ZM

They would be very hungry (and fast eating) slugs! We have rabbit problems around here.

Now.... what to do. Can they be saved? Should I cut them to the ground or just keep watering them????

So sad --- they had great potential and I barely got to enjoy them...

Hi Stir_Fry,

Wow! I have never seen zinnia damage like that.

" Now.... what to do. Can they be saved? Should I cut them to the ground or just keep watering them???? "

Well, if you didn't have any further attacks from a Tyrannosaurus Rabbit, they could be saved. For the one in the photo, cut off what remains of the flower (it is a drain on the plant's meager resources) and water and foliar feed what remains of the plant with Miracle-Gro Tomato Food (its extra Magnesium is also appreciated by zinnias, because Chlorophyll contains Magnesium.} New branches will sprout at the base of what used to be the leaves.

But as long as whatever did the damage remains "at large", reviving and restoring the plant(s) seems pointless. If damage like that happened to one of my zinnias, I would be tempted to invest in a game camera and mount it so as to keep my zinnias in the frame so that I could get photos or video footage of the villain(s).

" We have rabbit problems around here. "

Do your neighbors also have problems like this? This doesn't look like damage that a neighborhood would tolerate. We live in a rural area and rabbits are common here (along with raccoons, possums, wild turkeys, squirrels, feral cats, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, deer, and the occasional mountain lion) and nothing has bothered my zinnias. My kohlrabi are the only thing rabbits have damaged. Occasionally deer will leave deep tracks in my zinnia beds, but there is no evidence of them eating zinnias or anything in our gardens and the deer tracks cause very minimal damage.

It looks like you will have to protect your zinnias with something like a chicken wire fence. But the problem there is that chicken wire isn't very ornamental. I have found that a 2-foot high chicken wire fence will stop a rabbit, even though they could probably jump over it. A guess they don't think it is worth the effort. I guess you have to decide whether growing zinnias in your area is worth the effort.

ZM

I am replying late to this but I want to speak specifically to rabbits and their dietary habits.

Believe it or not, rabbits are extremely intelligent and some of them develop a taste for things that others don't. I have none rabbits to eat plants which are "deer proof" and probably toxic to them such as daffodils.

I have eaten zinnia seeds and they taste very much like a milder version of sunflower seeds (their relative) so I would imagine that the flesh of the plant would taste similar to a sunflower leaf. It is very possible that your local rabbits have learned that they can eat zinnias!

Just for the record, I never pulled the zinnias after the rabbit damage and they came roaring back and looked fantastic well into fall! My new favorite annual...

Hi Stir_Fry,

Glad your zinnias made a come-back from the rabbit damage. We live in a rural area, and definitely have rabbits. But they have not gone after my many zinnias, and confine their damage to our vegetables -- I have to fence them out of our kohlrabi. Unopposed, they will eat all the kohlrabi to the ground, leaving no survivors. Not too surprisingly, they also go after lettuce.

We have several packs of coyotes in the area that do a fairly good job of keeping our rabbit population in check, and some large hawks and owls also go after the occasional rabbit. (Our rabbits are cottontails, and not jackrabbits.) A rabbit in a big open field is at a significant disadvantage.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your zinnias this year. As usual, I have been growing some zinnias indoors during the Winter.

ZM