Susan,

If there is anything remaining of the plants that remain in the ground, they will most likely put out side shoots. If they actually broke off at the base, then there may be nothing left to produce a shoot.

You could try to root cuttings from your existing plant material, but that will require using something like Physan 20 to sterilize your plant material to prevent bacterial rotting. The details of raising zinnias from cuttings were discussed back on Thu, May 28, 09 at 11:19 in the It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 10 message thread. The techniques of growing zinnias from cuttings have also been discussed in other parts of the "It can be fun..." message series. Unless your zinnias were breeder material (especially good, so that you want to save seeds from them), it's probably not worth going to the trouble to raise these from cuttings.

I use a form of tomato cage that I call a zinnia cage to help protect my best zinnias from winds, dogs, etc.

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We frequently get high winds here in Kansas, and I use zinnia cages to help brace my plants from being damaged. Each Fall I take cuttings from my best zinnias to continue growing them inside under fluorescent lights.

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Humidity domes are necessary for about the first week and a half until the zinnia cuttings can get enough roots to support themselves.

ZM

Thanks for the information, ZM! The broken zinnias are either Isabellina or Exquisite; I planted only those two in this particular area. Ironically, that area has been kindest to zinnias this year. The ones I planted in front of the sunflowers, usually a great place for them, have suffered from insects and rabbits.

The wind that broke my zinnias knocked my daughter's flagpole flat. I was out driving in that storm, and was relieved to find that I still had sunflowers when I got home. I wasn't worried about the zinnias, but now I know better.

How do you feel about transplanting zinnias? I started them in little pots this year instead of direct seeding. I enjoy the starting/transplanting process, but had always read this can result in smaller blooms, or single ones. So far only one of my transplants has bloomed. It's a cactus zinnia, and it's definitely smaller than usual.

Susan,

"How do you feel about transplanting zinnias? I started them in little pots this year instead of direct seeding. I enjoy the starting/transplanting process, but had always read this can result in smaller blooms, or single ones."

Transplanting zinnias, by digging them up from one place in the garden and moving their "root ball" to another place in the garden does disturb the roots a lot and most likely loses a significant amount of the root structure. That is traumatic for the zinnia plant and does set the plant back. It could cause the blooms to be smaller, and the whole plant to be smaller.

However, starting zinnias in pots and setting them out in the garden does not necessarily disturb the roots. I sowed a lot of zinnia seeds directly in the garden this year, but I also started some in 3-inch square pots under lights.

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That lets me get a head start on the season and get zinnias blooming in the garden at least a month before the ones that are direct-seeded in the garden. As zinnias grow larger in the pots, the pots become root-bound enough to form a cohesive root "ball" (actually more like a cube in my square pots) that falls out of the pot intact, so that setting the zinnia plants out from the pots doesn't disturb their roots at all. The roots, in effect, form their own peat pot.

So I grow my zinnias both ways, early from pots and later direct-seeded in the garden. But next year, I hope to start a lot more early in 3-inch pots than I did this year.

ZM