In my experience with the Profusion series, if you plant them 12 inches apart, you'll probably want to thin them in a couple of months! I always planted mine out at about 18 inches (I started them a couple of months early) and in about 6 weeks the plants will be touching their fingertips; in 8 weeks they'll be a jostling for space just a bit, wall to wall color.

But you will have a much shorter season than I do, so the 12 inches will be fine, I should think. I get about 6+ months of outside time (plus the two months head start inside under lights) When will you be able to direct sow in your location (when is your last frost expected)?

Thanks!

I'm in zone 6a and used to grow Profusion zinnias but switched to the Zahara series a couple of years ago. In any case, both types grew 18 to 20 inches wide for me. Personally, I would give them a little more than 12 inches, even in zone 5.

Art

with your short growing season ... since they are stills seed ...

you might not want to extend them as far as warmer zone or winter-start peeps do ...

as noted.. you can always trim them back.. but you cant plant more in august.. eh???

ken

I love the profusion plants. I found the cherry color fades, but the orangish colors don't. they are almost foolproof. Can take hot weather and don't need to be watered as much as other plants. They bloom continually and grow very bushy. Good luck with them.

Sorry if it's just now that I'm replying to this. I'm disappointed with the profusion. The tallest is only 4 inches. The zinnia variety that I direct sowed last year grew upto 12-14 inches tall and had really nice chartreuse flower. I'm not going to buy proconfusion again. :( I mean, profusion.

I wonder what went wrong? I've grown Profusion for years with predictably great results. Glad you found something that worked well for you.

many things are a bit behind in my MI ...

cold may.. with cold soil ... early ...

i wouldnt give up just yet... in my mind.. they peak in august...

ken

Thanks Ken for the heads up.

My zinnias started blooming a week agobut I'm very disappointed. The size of the flower is only 1 inch in diameter. The color is great but the size is small. The height of the plant is short too. I won't buy profusion again.

I had very good luck with the lime green zinnia. It only took a 1.5 months to flower or even shorter. The flowers were big about 3.5-4 inches in diameter. I also remember direct sowing a pink yellow zinnia that I collected in wisconsin. It was also very beautiful.

It is true that the blooms on profusions and zaharas are very small. But there are so many, they still make a huge impact. And yes, they are shorter plants as well. But at least here, my big flowered tall zinnias are starting to get leaf spot and look ratty, not to mention that they need deadheading almost daily, while my Profusions are cranking along with great beauty and have not needed deadheading once. It is definitely disappointing when you don't get what you expected.

My profusion aren't doing much. There is only one flower per plant. I will take a picture tomorrow.