Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Peppermint Stick Zinnia

We were late in planting the garden, so even the quick-starters are just starting to be productive. Last year, I wasted a lot of money on exotic seeds that never germinated. Since I couldn't be sure if it was the seeds or it was me at fault, I decided to keep the flower experiments simple until I had a clue about what I was doing.

Zinnias are easy. Zinnias truly are "Flowers for Dummies". So I bought almost every Zinnia mix that Johnny's offers.



The Peppermint Stick is supposed to be a "fully double bloom".



They're not exactly turning out like that, though. (Compare with the image in that last link.)



Maybe they need more water. I kind of like them this way, though.



One of the "small percentage of solid colors" they warn you about.



This one's trying to go for "double" I guess. Sometimes one of the petals is a solid color like this. I found that if I cut them at this point, those inner petals never unfurl. They seem to stay frozen in time at the moment of cutting.

Like all the other Zinnias, they have excellent staying power as a cut flower.

13 comments:

NCmountainwoman said...

The work horse of annuals. I love zinnias of all colors and sizes. Nice photos.

R.Powers said...

Nice!
They truly are user friendly flowers.

Dani said...

My little girl loves zinnias. So easy and carefree. Just perfect for little ones.

egassner said...

Lol....not quite double but they look great anyway! I love the 'stripes' on them :D

Anonymous said...

Those are outstanding!!Good Morning from Mississippi! Hope you have a great week. Keep up the good work here!

Annie in Austin said...

Zinnias are so nice for cutting and those Peppermints would be fun in a vase, Rurality. There sure is a lot of variation from one group of seeds.

The only zinnias that have done well here so far are Zinnia linearis, but I'll keep trying!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Anonymous said...

Do they maintain that peppermint coloring later in the flowering season? I've had some impatiens like that and they reverted to solid colors not long after they left the nursery.

lisa said...

Very odd that they aren't doubles as advertised....I wonder what's going on? Ah well, pretty just the same!

lisa said...

LOVE the new header, BTW!

Susan Gets Native said...

I have some peppermint-colored stuff coming up where I planted it a zillion years ago (and pre-blog, so I can't go back and see what the heck it is!) I like zinnias. Easy-peasy.

BTW: WHERE did you get your blog header????? I love it!

Kathi D said...

I LOVE zinnias. I planted a small bed of just zinnias this year in our hot dry climate, and they are thriving. It was hard to find the old-fashioned 3 ft. tall ones, since I got a late start and had to use plants instead of seeds. People seem to prefer the small ones these days.

I have some peppermint flowers and mine aren't double, either.

Rurality said...

NCMW, Besides the easy factor, I love most that they are so varied.

FC, yeah if I can grow them, they are not hard. :)

Dani, they are definitely not fussy!

EGassner, yes I think I like the stripes even more than the dotted pattern on Johnny's picture.

FTP, thanks.

Annie, Zinnias might feel intimidated in your garden. :)

Pablo, I'm not sure, this is the first time I've grown them.

Lisa, these are the first flowers, so the later ones might be more doublish. It kind of looks like they will be. Glad you like the header, thanks!

Susan, yeah blogs help a LOT with that sort of looking back, LOL. I made the blog header in Photoshop, or rather PaintShopPro. So can you, in 5 hours and 400 easy steps... It took me a while to figure out how to do it! But basically I made it a picture, and then told blogger to replace the normal header with that picture. I can't decide whether to leave the tagline or drop it, but for now I've left it.

KathiD, I ordered some of the Benary's Giant mix from Johnny's and I think they are going to do well also... I'll try to get photos of all the types eventually. A couple of them haven't bloomed much yet.

Anonymous said...

Love the zinnia photos as well as enjoy reading your blog! I have you on my blogroll over at my blog, www.cindydyer.wordpress.com.

Keep up the entertaining and lively work!

Cindy