I was not familiar with “Profusion Zinnias” until our MG group toured the home of Karen Hehl two summers ago. In her garden were rows of these great mounds of very bright and colorful zinnias that just knocked your socks off! Our entire group was drawn to these plants and Karen advised us that she had started them from seeds. Well, I can tell you that when the seed catalogs started arriving last January my priority was to find and order those seeds.
I bought two packages of each (25 seeds to a packet), yellow, white and cherry intending to only use the yellow and white at my home and the cherry at Hack House Museum. I very carefully planted each color in separate containers and marked them well. When the seedlings were ready to transplant I again carefully segregated the colors and put them in separate flats with visible identification. Ah, the best laid plans…..I won’t even tell you what happened over the course of growing them on, before planting them in the garden, but when it was time to plant there were several containers that I didn’t have a clue about and others I was quite sure about but even using those caused surprise – as you can see in the photo – when they started to flower. This photo was taken in late summer – colors had faded some but were still vibrant.
If you like a colorful bed of annuals I believe Profusion Zinnias are one of the best flowering annuals available. They bloom the entire summer and stay looking good because the new leaves and 2″ flowers cover the old ones so deadheading is not required. The seed books state “they are very tolerant of mildew (true) and other foliage diseases that plague many Zinnias, are easy to grow and can even be direct-sown.” They are available in many colors, with double or single flowers, and a mature plant is about 15″ tall and 15″ wide!
Think Spring!
Great article…they are added to my list for spring
What a beautiful picture! I have used these zinnia to edge a flower bed but I never thought to create mounds of them. I usually purchase them as plants from local greenhouses, but recently have noticed that they sell out quickly. I am going to try direct sowing of seeds but also get plants because I want that color right away. I am wondering how you planted the seedlings to achieve the mounding effect.
Hi Chris – the mounds are just the natural way they grow – 1 seedling, which looks very tiny grows into a mound about 15″ by 15″! Since the flower bed pictured is just off the sidewalk leading from my home to the driveway (and this was my first experience with this variety) I wanted to make sure there were no bare spots so I planted seedlings about 12″ from each other – I just didn’t trust that they would fill out so much. Looking at the photo the cherry zinnia is one plant. Next year I will give them a little more room.
I will say, that for whatever reason, a few of the plants acted like I had put them on steriods and grew taller and wider than I expected and I had to do some pruning to keep them from falling over. Also, when transplanting the seedlings I cut each plant back to encourage a fuller plant.
Thanks Naida. Enjoyed the article