Zinnia: Flower Spotlight
This article comes from our series of flower spotlights, which are adaptations of the newsletters we send to members of our flower share throughout the season. You can see more spotlights by heading here.
Zinnias — Zinnia haageana and Z. elegans
All the beautiful colors of zinnias…
Zinnias are familiar and delightful flowers, and they're on my mind right now as the first big flush of blooms comes into being. It’s incredible to see the huge variety of pollinators attracted to their blooms, from honeybees, bumblebees, and native bees to big beautiful swallowtail butterflies, digger wasps, and speedy hummingbirds.
We start zinnias from seed in the greenhouse in early April, and transplant them into the field as soon as we can after danger of frost. We plant them somewhat further apart, at 5 rows per bed and 9 inches between plants, to accommodate their many branches. They usually start blooming in early July, but this year has definitely thrown some curve balls with the late frost and our difficulties in the greenhouse, so I'm happy to see them appearing now. We have a second succession of zinnias in the ground that will offer fresh blooms in September after this first round has faded.
The genus is named for a German botanist and ophthalmologist (how did he do both??) Johann Gottfried Zinn. Here’s a lovely pun-filled article about Johann - my favorite: “If meditation is something you struggle with, you can still become a Zinn Master, if you enjoy growing zinnias”. The species name, elegans, means what you might think: elegant. While I don’t usually think of zinnias as elegant (joyful, exuberant, and fresh come to mind as more apt adjectives), I can see how their curling petals, mathematically elegant spiraling forms, and tall stately stems can be graceful & opulent.
In the Victorian flower language, zinnias were said to mean ‘everlasting friendship,’ which I think is just perfect. They are the friendliest flower. They are also native to both north and south America, in scrub and grassland areas. One more wonderful factoid: Zinnias have been grown in space on the International Space Station and shown to grow and flower in a weightless environment. Here’s a great article about the astronaut, Scott Kelly, who grew them. I would love to see a painting or an opera entitled ‘Zinnias in Space’ — wouldn’t you?
Zinnias grown by astronaut Scott Kelly on the International Space Station!