Tansy - I would suggest changing your posting addy to add your zone and state/location. That really helps us a lot to answer your questions.

I posted about this issue a while back. It gets you better answers from folks who know what conditions you are dealing with.

Okay.

Cool. Now here's the rub - I have friends in zone 7 who simply direct sow their zins and have great success. For me, it's late winter sown.

All that information work and little result. I hope your comrades will chime inn.

Tansy
I 've bought several zinnias this year(not any childhood memories to speak of-just good butterfly magnets!!)I don't think we can start them until the end of March though
pinwheel mix-12in, state fair-36in, envy(lime green!)-30in,purple prince-36in, california giant-36in, will rogers(deep red)-36in
I want to do a border or planter with the purple and green combo. I have bells of Ireland too but not sure what to use for my other purple. Any ideas? B

Sorry I should have said WHERE I got them! Menards, Home Depot(DH calls it Home Repo) and Jungs Seed. B

I love zinnias, though as a kid I disliked them for some reason. They're such long-lasting flowers, bold colors, butterflies and even hummingbirds love them, the deer don't eat them, they bloom in part shade, don't need a lot of water, they do well in poor soil...I love them!

It can be hard to get individual colors of zinnias, but if you're growing these for cutting, you probably won't mind a mixed row. State Fair or Benary's Giants are great.

I've ordered from Swallowtail before, their shipping charges are reasonable. You should be able to find packets of these two types in stores, too. The Swallowtail pages has photos of those two and other zinnias.

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/zinnias.html

Tansy there are a ton of zinnia seeds at walmart, home depot,lowes, and a few others...they really are easy to find..and burpee has some really nice new colors on their racks...

Check out Main Street Seed and Supply. They have 5 different kinds of zinnias. All have 600-1000 seeds for 1.95 plus S&H.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flower Seed Source - Main Street Seed and Supply

I acquired seed from Parks, Select Seed, Cheapseeds, Ebay, and anywhere else I saw a zinnia I didn't have, lol. We had such a bad drought year last year and the zinnias (last year I had California Giants and Profusion zinnias) performed beautifully despite the dry, arid conditions - so I'm going crazy with zinnias this year.

Zinnia - Benarys Deep Red
Zinnia - Burpeeana Giants
Zinnia - Cactus mixed
Zinnia - California Giants
Zinnia - Candy Cane mix
Zinnia - Carousel mix
Zinnia - Creeping Mandarin Orange
Zinnia -Cut and Come Again
Zinnia - elegans Magellan Mixed
Zinnia - elegans Peppermint stick
Zinnia - elegans Scabious Mixed
Zinnia - Giant Cactus mix
Zinnia - Giant Carmine Rose
Zinnia - Giant double
Zinnia - Giants
Zinnia - Giant Salmon Rose
Zinnia - Giant Scarlet
Zinnia - lilliput mixed
Zinnia - Persian Carpet
Zinnia - pinwheel
Zinnia - pompon
Zinnia - Profusion Double Cherry
Zinnia - Profusion Fire
Zinnia - Red Spider
Zinnia - Star Golden Yellow Dwarf
Zinnia - Thumbelina mix
Zinnia - Whirlygig mix

I'll be starting them this weekend. Last year I started them in February and had many that were frozen in our after-Easter freeze. I didn't get pictures until mid-September when I got my new camera. Please disregard the weeds - of course they thrived in the drought, lol.

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I was never a big zinnia fan until I actually grew them myself two years ago, and now I would not be without them!

I think they're easy to find. If you want single, separate colors, Johnny's, Pinetree, Stokes, and Parks all have a fairly good selection. They also offer solid color mixes.
T&M also offered some for cutting this year, although they seemed to have mostly mixed solid colors.

Have fun!
:)
Dee

I'm writing a coffee table book called Simple Southern Bouquets and it's due out in late 2009. We're picking old favorite blooms and doing a chapter on each. The zinnias chapter is coming up and I am searching for someone who has some good old memories of zinnias that I can write up. I LOVE TANSY MOON'S STORY ABOUT THE SHELLS. Dying to get in touch with her. ANY LEADS ON HOW? And any others up for sharing SOUTHERN tales? Seeds shared, bouquets gathered, towering plants, a particular color, something about growing adventures, perhaps a kid who cut and sold them to a farmer's market, florist, or somesuch. Any nostalgic story about the blooms from someone in the SOUTH. Might you have such tales? Or leads for them? I'd greatly appreciate any help/insight you could lend. Especially since I am on deadline. THANKS!
Melissa Bigner

Tansy Moon...as you can see I am in zone 5. Last year I grew Liliput zinnias and pinwheels. The liliputs grew beautifully, the pinwheels not so great. Both of them were feasts for slugs...I just couldn't keep them off the zinnias and am having the same problem with my profusion cherry zinnias this year. Darned slugs...I spray every one I see with ammonia water but there are more than I can control.
Bonny