Alice, I have: # Zinnia 'Cactus Flowered Mix' commercial # Zinnia 'Canary Bird' # Zinnia 'Candy Cane Mix' # Zinnia 'Enchantress Giant Double' # Zinnia 'Envy Double' # Zinnia 'Profusion Cherry' I also have a 'Scarlet Red' - I'm not sure if that's the same as 'Scarlet Flame'. All are from commercial packs, except the 'Envy' and 'Profusion Cherry' - those are both from trades. I would love to trade for your: Brugmansia 'Orange Sherbet X Rosemond' @6 seeds **S** Brugmansia 'Rhapsody X OP' @6 seeds **S** Chrysanthemum Tricolor Rainbow Impatiens 'Blitz Orange' (commercial pack) Impatiens 'Swirl Coral' (commercial pack) Impatiens 'Sunny Lady, Blue Moon mix' (commercial pack) Please let me know if this sounds workable to you! Becki

Northerner, "Now I'll be searching for seeds for them." If you mean for a commercial strain of zinnia called "Shaggy Dog", you won't find it. That is a name that I coined for one of my hand-hybridized zinnia specimens. If you mean searching for them in your saved zinnia seeds, then, yes, that is a possibility. Zinnias have all sorts of interesting surprises in store, and no telling what you will find in your zinnias. The Shaggy Dog flower form is unusual, because as the flower matures, it gets really "long" or "tall" instead of wide, as you can see in this picture. "I picked up a couple more zinnia heads which I believe were Shaggy Dog types. The petals were long and thin, and the seeds were still attached to the petals when I took the dried seed heads apart." It is possible that you might find your own "Shaggy Dog" type of zinnias. The ancestors of mine were simply commercial Burpee Hybrid and Burpeeana zinnias. I grew quite a few and cross-pollinated a few selected favorites that had extra long thin petals. I grew those hybrids, and then made hybrids of the hybrids. However, I was trying to get a spider flowered strain, and the dangling flower form of the Shaggy Dog zinnia came as a complete surprise to me, and was unplanned. But I immediately liked it, so naturally I self-pollinated it as much as possible and saved seeds from it. We'll see what I get from those seeds next year. "I will have to try your 'pinch' test next fall when I am saving. Don't know I can really tell if there is "content" with my limited experience, but I guess with the interest your responses have sparked in me, I may get there some time." You will get there. It is just a matter of shucking out and handling a lot of zinnia seeds. "As for "Tissue Culture", that's way out of my league." For a lot of people, Tissue Culture is a hobby all by itself. I was drawn to it more for what it could do to improve my zinnia hobby. However, as I get into it, I can see the attraction. There are many aspects to Tissue Culture and it can be as simple or involved as you want it to be. It is actually fairly easy to get started in Tissue Culture, and the Home Tissue Culture Group and their kits are a good starting place. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned)

I agree with seeding zinnias. When it gets hot, they can go from seed to flower in 6-8 weeks! Zinnias don't like to be transplanted, but I buy some every year and sometimes I get lucky, other times I don't. Here is one unlucky problem: Do you know what variety of zinnia you've planted? Did you plant them in the same bed where they died last year? Did you plant them before we got some heavy rain? I ask these questions because I love zinnias but can't grow them in most of my yard. I've planted shortstuff and they died off from fungus. At first they look wilted, then I notice pill bugs, one year I was convinced the pill bugs were destroying them, but they were just eating the dead plant stuff from the fungus. If you think it might possibly be fungal, immediately remove the bottom leaves so they do not touch the soil and water gently. Some varieties are hardier than others. I've had much better results with Magellan than with some of the others that have nice big flowers.

Hi Melody, Also, zinnias like frequent (every few days) feedings of reduced-strength (1 or 2 teaspoons per gallon) Miracle-Gro Tomato Food. That formula contains extra Magnesium, which is a vital component in chlorophyll. (Plants can't make chlorophyll without Magnesium.) Miracle-Gro also contains other vital trace elements. Drench your zinnias in the morning with a foliar feeding, allowing the excess to run off to feed the roots as well. Morning feeding is good because it gives the plants time to dry off before nightfall. Foliar feeding is handy because it doesn't require a sprayer. You can just sprinkle the plants from an ordinary watering can. If you have had cloudy weather (very probable in the Pacific NorthWest), add some sugar to the formula (a teaspoon to a tablespoon per gallon). Zinnias can absorb sugar through their leaves to make up for a deficiency caused by too little sunshine in cloudy weather. Cloudy weather can greatly reduce the amount of vital photosynthesized sugar produced by the chlorophyll in sun. ZM