Well, I went on a planting spree. It couldn’t be helped – not with all the seeds I got from DG last week. Every variety was planted – but not all the seeds, because there were just so many of some of them.
The first Zinnia sprout!
I decided to use a couple of my shallower self-watering containers (SWCs) in the process, and the Zinnias happened to end up in one of them. It’s probably a good thing because the weather has turned dry once again. The potting media in the SWCs is slightly damp all the time while that in normal flower pots needs water added at least once a day.
I sometimes cover the germination pot/container to help keep moisture in to help the seeds to sprout, and had put a loose cover over the Zinnia container. As a force of habit, even with SWCs, I check the dampness of the potting media daily, so when I lifted the cover on the third day, I was pleasantly surprised to see the first Zinnia sprout growing strongly. The next two showed up over the next day or so.
More sprouts - unable to shed their seed coats yet! I was amused by the one with the dried petal "hat" :)
Of course, I don’t know what colour the flowers of these sprouts are going to be. DG gave me too many seeds from too many plants while we were browsing through the community garden, and I didn’t have any other choice than to mix the 3 varieties of Zinnia seeds in one hand. (Refusing seeds? Not an option! :P) I’ll probably plant each seedling in an individual pot so that I can shift them around once they flower and I know what colour the blooms are. Apparently, Zinnias tend to cross-pollinate, so if you want to keep a line pure then you should plant them by variety.
Alternatively, I could just plant them all together in a general Zinnia patch and then save the seeds separately for the next round of planting. If they happen to cross-pollinate, then I’ll have some unique flowers down the line. I’m not complaining!
I’m really looking forward to seeing the colourful blooms in the coming months. When old enough, these plants will go to a nice sunny spot in the garden – hopefully where they’ll serve the dual purpose of attracting more bees, butterflies and sunbirds (which I’d love to photograph) as well as distract other insects from my veggies. Don’t worry, you’ll see photos when there are photos to be taken!
© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.
