Hello Friends of the Garden,

Today we are celebrating, chatting and choosing one our favorite flowers to grow.

This is a really challenging decision, because I have several flowers that I adore for various reasons, I just imagine you do too.

So, put on your gardening hat, bring out your gardening journal and give this prompt some thought.

What is one of your favorite flowers to grow?

When I think of the lazy hazy days of Summer, I immediately think of Zinnias.

Readily available in a kalediscope of colors, truly a must have for any cutting flower garden.

As gardeners a good bit of our joy orginates from our flower selections, the zinnia is one of the dependable stars of the flower garden and one of my favorite flowers to grow.

I believe it is important to have a variety of go-to flowers that we can count on to bloom with confidence and ease.

Zinnias are so dependable that they are like stashing cash away for a rainy day-when all other blooms fail we can turn to our favorite blooms to work up a bouquet for ourselves, our friends and even selling at market.

Zinnias do have a bit of a mind of their own when it comes to cold weather, they much prefer to bask in the sunshine, showing off their flashy blooms rather than to be shivering in the cold.

When we lived in Texas and Mississippi I was fortunate enough to be able to direct sow the seeds right into the soil after the last frost or when the soil temperature was around 70 degrees.

Sowing seeds directly into the garden plot is fantastic andreally gives me great joy-I miss being able to do that.

Once the zinnia seeds were sown into the garden plot I kept them moist. Truly tiny little sprouts began to emerge within a week, with colorful ruffled skirts soon to follow.

This year I began growing here in Black Forest Colorado on February 2.

With our high elevation, thin air and often times limited thermal I start my seeds in 72 cell propagation trays in early February.

I also succession plant the seedlings as some of them will go directly into the greenhouse, while the next crop will go into the outdoor raised beds.

I place them under grow lights (which work wonderfully,) after the seedlings have at least two sets of true leaves I transplant them into the raised beds in the Greenhouse mid-March.

Once the raised beds have been prepared we lay down our drip irrigation system.

My husband is the talent behind the irrigation system.

He has everything on timers which is wonderful.

He adjusts the drip system all throughout the growing season to meet the needs of the maturing plants as well as weather conditions.

Dave built our raised flower beds, they measure 4x8x12.

I space zinnias around 6 inches apart.

It is a little close, but I just have to make the most of my growing space, and they really don’t seem to mind the close quarters.

Zinnias are a cut and come again flower which is a real bonus because the more they are cut the more they will bloom.

Zinnias will bloom long after the typical growing season when cutting them often.

So while we are on the topic of cutting, dead heading is equally as important if you are not regularly cutting zinnias.

Dead heading is removing spent blossoms.

By removing blooms the zinnia will focus it’s energy on blooming and not going to seed.

Another awesome personality of the zinnia is that by pinching them back early in the season they will branch out and offer even more blooms on those branches.