I don't know if it's true in St. Louis, but up here in my part of MN the ground is still waaaay too cool to be planting any annuals. We've had temps in the 60s and 70s for the last few weeks also, with nighttime temps in the 40s, but that's not enough to warm the soil adequately... not yet, anyway.

Thanks, Deeje, but I planted them in pots, not in the ground. We have night temps in the 50s and day temps in the 70s and 80s. All of my other annuals in pots are doing well.

Hi Mimi, I am only about an hour south of you. My question, what size were the zinnias when you planted them? Were they in a 4 inch pot or cell pack? I have talked with lots of people who had trouble establishing zinnias that were large when purchased.

Did you grow your zinnias yourself from seed or did you buy them? If you grew your own, did you harden off before planting? If you bought them, you didnt get them from inside a building, rather than a greenhouse? I have had plants given to me from supermarkets,etc that had sat inside for weeks, not getting any true sunlight, and as soon as I would try to plant them, they would wilt and/or die. Undoubtedly, these plants needed to reacclimate to the sun outside, however, if someone gives you a plant as a gift, how do you know if it has acclimated properly or not???

I would NOT be planting out zinnias (or anything else) this early, but you and I have had the exact same weather this month, so I know why you would be getting started already. And now, you have a frost advisory for the night too, right?! Dammit!

I seen a nice selection of Profusions at Bayers the other day (my favorite place to plant shop), though I grow all my plants from seed.

Just wanted to give you some things to think about!