Don't think those blooms are dry enough to produce mature seeds. Haven't collected zinnia seeds for ages, but when I did, I'd usually wait until the spent flower was fairly crispy and brown then harvest the whole spent bloom. Put them in an empty seed package and picked out the seeds in the spring.

The seed head and petals should be really dry. The seed is at the end of the petals. I mention this because I knew a person who thought the seeds were what was left after she pulled out the petals. In other words, she was saving and planting a part of the flower that had no seeds at all.

Here are some examples, including a few photos that show after pulling out the petals to collect the seeds

https://www.google.com/search?q=dry+zinnia+flower&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=arMSVfKeD4aXNtHQgqAE&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=480&bih=468

Actually, Zen Man has shown you can collect them green and get great germination. Here are a couple of links:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1383940/zinnia-seeds

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1382141/growing-green-zinnia-seeds

He hybridizes them, so has a lot of experience with it. :-)

MorningSong (that's a pretty name), thanks for your confidence in me. Actually, I saw this thread and hesitated to chime in, because the zinnias in the picture are Profusions. Profusions, like the Zaharas and Pinwheels, are members of the new zinnia species, Zinnia marylandica. I don't grow the Marylandicas for several reasons, so I have no direct experience with them.

So I don't know how well the Green Seed Technique translates to the Profusions, Zaharas, and Pinwheels. It works great for the larger Zinnia elegans (now sometimes referred to as Zinnia violacea, after the original wildflower).

One possible problem with the Profusion seeds might have been poor pollination. If a bunch of bees didn't show up to pollinate the Profusions, then very few, if any, of the seeds would have been "fertilized" to produce viable embryos in the seeds. Chipeony, do you remember if a lot of bees visited your Profusion zinnias last year?

ZM

I have grown those zinnias for the last three years and saved seeds from them. I have collected both green and dried seeds, but then let them all dry. I did find lots of unfertilized, or empty seeds. I still have lots of seeds, if you'd like me to send some.

Martha

DocMom, if you have some like Chiponey has posted, and you could spare; I'd love to trade you for some of those seeds. I have lots of butterfly type annual and perennial seeds, plus Liliput zinnia, ruby red coneflower, etc. Email if you'd like to do some trading, I'll send a list :-)

I did try to dry the petal and seed head last fall.

I opened the seed head and saw some seeds at the tip of petal. some seeds was at the center of seed head with white fiber, can they grow or not? I just wonder one flower can produce how many seeds?

Thanks.

Thanks for all information. Thanks docmom for seeds offering too. Actually, I was so excited I still got comments. :):)

I got seeds from Thompson Morgan last year and they grew very well. I saw a lot of bees touching them. I followed all advise and dried the flower head. I took out seeds from dry flower head last week and found out not only the petal had seeds, there were seeds everywhere. So, which was empty?

Thanks.

I've never grown zinnia before this year Chiponey. Perhaps the more knowledgeable will return and answer those two questions ;[)