Growing Zinnias! The Easiest Cut Flower

Are you like me and you secretly dream of becoming a flower farmer, only you don't have a farm and you don't really know how to grow flowers? Well, this video is for you because I'm going to teach you how to grow the easiest cut flower possible, and that is the zinnia. I'm going to take you from seed to troubleshooting, to harvest, all from our complete guide to growing zinnias so that you and I can start fulfilling our flower farming dreams no matter where we live. I wanted you to know that zinnias are part of our 10 gifted seed sets. You can get all 10 of these seeds for a very low price and free shipping and handling. I'll put a link to these gifted seeds right below this video. Now, we made these growing guides to go with our gifted seeds and I'm going to be walking you through each of the parts of this growing guide so you know when to plant, how to plant, how to take care of it, how to troubleshoot, and when to harvest. So zinnias are in the aster plant family. Other flowers that are in that plant family are sunflowers, cosmos, coreopsis, marigolds. All these flowers grow great in the warm season when there is no chance of frost. And they all grow really well simply by taking a seed and placing it in the soil directly in the garden. Zinnias do not like frost. So you're going to be planting after your last frost date and you'll get to enjoy your zinnias all the way until your first frost date. Now, for a lot of us, this is a long period of time to have cut flowers. And for me here in Nashville, we're talking all the way from the beginning of June all the way till the end of October. When I was in Chicago, this would be from, say, June to September. And when I was in Houston, I could have zinnias from April all the way till the following November. As long as you have a frost free period, zinnias can grow. Zinnias don't just grow for a long time. They also can grow almost anywhere. Zinnias are not picky when it comes to the soil that they grow in. So you don't have to reserve space in your raised bed for zinnias. You can simply plant them in the ground around your garden space. So as soon as your last frost has passed, you want to go out into the garden and plant zinnia seeds directly in the soil, about 4 to 6 inches apart from one another. You can also use the KS gardening method, which is what I employed here, where I just mixed my zinnia seeds up with some coarse sand and sprinkled them into the blank spots in my native plants space. You want to plant these seeds pretty close to the surface. You'll see that these seeds are very thin and not too big, so you don't want to bury too deeply. Around one inch is plenty of depth. Now, after you plant your zinnia seeds, you want to keep these well watered. This is probably the most important period of your zinnia seed growth, is making sure the soil does not dry out in the first two weeks of planting. If the temps are right, if you've waited until after frost and things are really warming up and there's a lot of sun, you should have the start of your seedlings within five to seven days. If it's a little cooler outside, it might take an extra week. But if you don't start to see seedlings within 14 days of planting your seeds, you should come back and plant some more. The only exception to this planting method would be if you live in a very cold climate. If you're in zones three or four and you want to have zinnia blooms earlier in the season, then it might be a good idea for you to start your zinnia seeds indoors in the last month or two before your last frost. This will give you a jump on growth and you'll get blooms faster as you move into your summer season. But for the rest of us, probably Zone five and up, it's really not worth starting zinnia seeds indoors. They don't transplant that well, and they grow really reliably directly planted in the garden. Now, I mentioned that zinnias grow in any kind of soil, but you do want to make sure your soil is prepped and ready for planting. Be sure that you break up any big pieces of rock or clay in your soil mix. Rake out the soil. Just make sure that you're giving the seed the best place to get started. Be sure your soil is nice and loose and crumbly. You don't really need to add any amendments before you plant. You just want to be sure the texture of your soil is great and ready to receive those seeds. So once your seedlings start to sprout at seven to 14 days, you want to go in and thin your plants to be sure that you've got one plant every five, seven, maybe nine inches apart. I tend to grow my zinnias a little bit closer, but when you do, you do run the risk of having more powdery, mildew and some disease and pest problems later on. So go ahead and thin those plants. You can replant the thinnings in other parts of the garden. So go ahead and thin them now to save yourself some headaches later. All right, now let's talk about taking care of your zinnia plants as they begin to grow. For watering, you want to water once or twice a week, and you want to be sure that that water is going directly to the base of the plant and not unnecessarily getting the leaves or the flowers wet. This is going to cut down on powdery mildew and some of the other common problems that zinnias usually have. Once you put your finger down into the soil to one or two knuckles, if the soil feels dry, it's time to water. If it's still nice and moist, hold off on the watering. You'll thank me later. Later. When it comes to amendments, the soil really doesn't need much. You could add a little bit of compost when you start to see the first buds produced on your plants. This is going to give a little boost of phosphorus, which is what helps those plants flower. But again, it's rarely necessary because zinnias really can grow in almost any soil. And the last thing you want to think about when it comes to tending and keeping this plant growing is pinching the plant back. Honestly, this is a piece that I have the hardest time with. But when your plants are about 6 to 12 inches tall, the experts say to cut your plant back right above a leaf node. And what will happen is instead of getting this one really tall plant, you'll end up getting two growing stems that give you much more balance on the plant and allow it to support itself. Plus, you'll get double the blooms. Now, let's talk about the pests that tend to attack your zinnias. First and foremost are aphids. So if you're experiencing aphids on your zinnias, you can. You can use a homemade tomato leaf spray to deal with the aphids, or you can plant other flowers around your zinnias that welcome in ladybugs so that they do the work for you. You may also see caterpillars on your zinnias. And if that's the case, I highly recommend growing some trap crops around your zinnias. Things in the brassica plant family can deter caterpillars from coming onto your zinnias, giving them some parsley, some dill, other plants that they'd be more attracted to go to other than your zinnias if you continue to have problems with them, you could spray your plants with a garlic spray or you can use insecticidal soap. My favorite is Dr. Bronner's. Now, the diseases that zinnias tend to get can all be attributed to either overcrowding or over watering. Powdery mildew is probably at the top of the list. To deal with powdery mildew, you may want to pull some of your plants and thin them out. Be sure that you're not watering overhead and instead you're getting water straight to the soil. And, and then you may need to treat the powdery mildew organically. If it continues to be a problem, you can make a simple baking soda spray at home. Spray it only on the affected leaves, and then keep the plants well pruned and underwatered for a little bit. You should see that powdery mildew go away. If you start to see leaf spot or any other damages to the leaves themselves, you want to remove those affected leaves and be sure that you've got plenty of airflow and that each and every one of your zinnia plants is, is getting enough sunlight. Then add a little bit of compost to the base of each plant and hopefully that'll help support the recovery of the plant itself. Finally, we're to the fun part, and that is harvesting. When it's time to cut your zinnias, you want to cut right above a leaf node. This is because from that leaf node, the plant will actually branch out, create two new branches that will create more blooms for you. These are not just called cut flowers. These are cut and come again cut flowers. Every time you cut, you should get two more blooms, blooms in its place. So the name of the game here is cutting a lot and cutting often. The more you cut, the more blooms you get. Now, as soon as you cut these blooms, you want to get them into some water and get them indoors. I found that these blooms last about a week or a week and a half indoors. I love putting them in the bathrooms, in the kitchen. And these are also a great gift to bring when you go over for a barbecue or a dinner with friends and family. There's nothing like walking through the door or holding a vase full of flowers that you grew yourself as a housewarming gift. Now, when you harvest, you want to use clean pruners. And I highly recommend harvesting your zinnias as early in the morning as possible. These plants will have recovered from the heat from the previous day. They'll have taken up as much water as possible from the soil and they're going to last longest in the vase if you go ahead and pull them early in the morning. Every time a zinnia bloom dries out, it's going to give you dozens of new seeds for the following year. On each and every one of these zinnia blooms are the possibilities of 10, 15, 30 more zinnias next season. Every little petal that you see is actually attached to a seed that it's making right underneath the bud of the flower. And when you let this bloom go all the way to drying out, then you'll be able to pull up each single petal and see a dried seed on the other end. This means that you can buy one packet of zinnia seeds this year, grow a big field of gorgeous cut flowers, and then never buy zinnia seeds again. You'll have enough for your own flower garden and enough to give away as gifts, too. That is what I call garden magic. Now zinnias are just one of the flowers that I've got growing to surround my raised bed kitchen garden. I call the whole idea a living fence, and I made a whole video to show you how to do it right here. 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