I don't know for sure that there's not a hybrid in what you planted that will revert and be different next year, but I have not seen any changes/cross-pollination in the zinnias I have planted--I think that next year you'll get what you see this year.

Your zinnias sound really interesting--do you have any photos?

IowaGal,

Like Stage_rat said, we would be interested in pictures of your unknown zinnias.

It's definitely worth while to save seeds from your favorite zinnias. There may be a few surprises from bee cross-pollinations, but sometimes even those can be interesting.

You might want to label your different zinnia seed heads with descriptions of the flowers. This year I am labelling mine with just a number. I have a notebook with descriptions of the zinnias that go with the numbers. That keeps the size of the labels small.

MM

Thanks for the answers, both of you. I will have to head out to get some pics, but I am scheduled to get broadband installed this Saturday, so will maybe wait until then to post them. Meanwhile, I will pick some flowers to harvest seeds from.

Has anybody ever tried keeping the flowers in water until they are ready or do I have to do it outside and let nature take its course? I'm just thinking it may freeze before I get the seeds from the flowers I want.

IowaGal,

I don't know if the seeds could mature properly with the flower in water. It might buy them a few more days of growth, and be worth a try. If I do that, I plan to include quite a bit of leaves with the stem, sort of like transplanting a piece of the plant into water. Then maybe the leaves could do some photosynthesis stuff to help nourish the little seed embryos.

We had frost on car windows yesterday morning, but my zinnias didn't seem to be damaged. I definitely have some "good ones" that are in danger of being cut short by frost. Maybe I can put a tarp over them, or something, if we get a valid frost warning on TV.

MM