Zinnias from Seed

I am most looking forward to dahlia blooms but a very close second is zinnias. I was definitely ready to get these seeds in the ground and wait for magic to happen. I have 4 different kinds of zinnia seeds. Lilliput Mix, Queen Lime with Blush, Queen Red Lime, and Queen Lime Orange. I intend to succession plant them about two weeks apart. The first planting was May 25th. I planted them approximately 9” apart. Fortunately, these seeds were much easier to see and handle than those ridiculous celosia seeds. I will have 3 rows in our 25’ bed, so I have about 8 seeds of each variety in each row.

Row in the middle was planted June 4th. Row to the right was planted May 25th.

I have not checked our germination rate yet, but at a glance, it seems to be pretty good, and our baby plants seem to be thriving. I did foliar feed them with Neptune's Harvest Organic Fish/Seaweed Blend Fertilizer on June 7th. The plan is to plant the last succession on June 18th. Now if I can just keep up with the weeds, in a few weeks, we’ll have beautiful zinnia blooms.

Direct sown on May 25th. Photo taken 16 days later.

Direct sown June 4th. Photo taken 6 days later.