Zinnias are fun; lovely in drifts or scattered in patches around the gardens; fabulous cut flowers. I've never known a zinnia having to be staked, the stalks are rigid and seem more than capable of standing up to wind, rain, large flower heads, etc.

Powdery mildew can occur, but usually late in the growing season when there might be more rain or bigger fluctuations between the day and night time temperatures. Avoid wetting foliage while watering once they sprout up and start to take off - a good practice for just about all plants anyway. Fall garden clean-up will help to reduce carry over of any PM spores.

Zinnias have few insect pests. Aphids, perhaps. I've never found them to transplant well, so have always direct sowed them where wanted. Others may have had transplanting success.

I transplant most everything and have not noticed zinnias to be difficult. If not deadheaded regularly I have had some lean/fall over. They are a great plant and I have started several varieties in the greenhouse this year. Al

I have had experience transplanting some tall zinnias, during the morning hours, but in the middle of the summer. I didn't like where they were and i dug a huge rootball, carefully placed them where I wanted them and they survived. Smaller mounds did even better. This year i am going to try and put them where I want them, but sometimes I just make mistakes.... (sometimes?? ha ha)

Carrie

I have always loved zinnias.....ive grown the large ones and have had to support them in one way or another....here in windy kansas......hubby usually has some left over
concrete wire cages .....that he uses for his tomatoes...for me to use around my zinnias.....they fill in nicely so you dont see the wire much.....

carol

Carol,

"..hubby usually has some left over concrete wire cages that he uses for his tomatoes for me to use around my zinnias. They fill in nicely so you don't see the wire much."

I do the very same thing with my prize "breeder" zinnias. I started breeding zinnias as a hobby a couple of years ago and, when I find an extra good zinnia, I put a cage around it. The cage protects it from wind damage and the occasional dog, deer or other animal that runs through my garden. We had a bad wind storm last year, with winds up to 50 mph, and it damaged a lot of my zinnias. But the ones in cages came through just fine.

My concrete wire came from Home Depot in 5-foot high by 50-foot long rolls (I ended up getting three rolls) so my cages were 5-feet high for the tomatoes, less 6 inches for the "anchor" prongs that I left by cutting off the bottom wire. The re-mesh wires were spaced 6 inches apart, which was handy for reaching through to get a tomato.

I grow indeterminate tomatoes and they need the full-height cages and usually spill out over the top of the cages. I used to grow a lot more tomatoes than I do now, so I don't need all those tomato cages that I made. My zinnias don't need 5-foot cages, so I cut some of them in two to make 2½-foot cages (2 feet after you deduct the 6-inch anchor prongs). Those work just fine for my zinnias. I'll be converting more of my tomato cages to zinnia cages this year.

We used to live in Wichita, so I know about those Kansas winds. And we had a couple of near-misses from tornadoes. So far we haven't seen any tornadoes here in Maine.

MM

Watch out for rabbits. They really mowed all the zinnias I planted last year.

MM,

Thank you for the info on the cages. I have made some wire cages, but have had trouble figuring out how to anchor them. Now I know! I have some wire cutters that will do the job just fine.

Karen

I havent visited the forum lately .....but tonight dropped in and reread this zinnia question....we make the anchors for our cages in the same way , maineman.....work great...
i also use these cages for my dahlias....but also use a wooden or steel post to tie the plant to for added support.....again,anything to fool our kansas winds!

carol

Karen, Carol,

I'm glad the prong-making technique came in handy for you.

My wire cutting pliers for fence wire had trouble cutting the heavy re-mesh wire, so I got some small bolt cutters at Home Depot to cut the stuff. Their compound action gave enough leverage to make it reasonably easy to make the cuts. I wish I could have found some flush-cutting bolt cutters, but none of our local stores had them and a brief Google search also failed. I guess there isn't much demand for flush-cutting bolt cutters.

This year I'll try an alternate approach to cutting the wire flush, by looking for a metal sawing wheel for my Dremel tool. When removing the bottom wire to get the prongs it doesn't matter if the cuts aren't flush, because the sharp points are underground.

But when you are cutting a tall cage in half to make two half-height cages, the top of the "new" cage has little wire projections because the cuts weren't perfectly flush. They are a bit like rose thorns, and although I haven't been hurt by one yet, I consider them a small flesh-wound-accident waiting to happen. Hence my interest in making those cuts flush.

Sometimes, when I have a little free time, I file the raw edges of the top ends of the vertical wires to smooth them and occasionally I use my portable Dremel tool to do the same thing. If I could make the cuts flush to start with, I wouldn't need to go to that trouble.

My fence pliers can cut nearly flush, so maybe I'll try rigging some "cheaters" to extend their handles for more leverage.

MM

I do much the same thing when making row covers. The top and bottom wires are cut from welded fencing and the prongs are inserted through a board to which the plastic can be stapled.

To make the cut I use a 4.5 inch angle grinder.

The thin cut-off wheels make fast work of this job and the grinder wheel will take off any sharp burrs. A good one will run a $100, but I only use one 3 to 4 times a year, so I got a cheap one on sale for $15 at Harbor Freight. Make sure you buy one that uses the replacement wheels that are sold by your local store. In my area most stores don't have the 4 inch wheels, but they all have the 4.5.

Pls8xx,

Thanks for the tip about the angle grinder. That looks a lot more capable than my little Dremel tool. I'll keep my eye open for an angle grinder that runs off of a lithium battery, possibly one of those batteries that can be used in a family of portable tools.

MM