all my neighbor does... is take a plastic grocery bag.. and at the end of the season .... puts about a hundred flower heads in it... and puts it in the garage ...

he then distributes the seed at soil thaw in spring ...

thats about 5 minutes of work in fall .. to insure they winter over ...

i used to do the same with marigold ... and i dont see why you couldnt do it with snaps.. though with their poppyseed like seeds... you might be better off ... using a common business envelope. and sealing it ...

i most likely.. still have the last set i saved a decade ago... still in my garage.. lol ...

ken

Snaps and Marigolds reseed themselves, no problem. They just are not as vigourous as Morning Glories or Calendulas or Larkspur or Celoisia.

i am not so much interested in collecting in fall and seed manually in spring for any flower.

i just want to know what other people experiences with Zinnia's self seeding. I am wondering what is my problem with Zinnias. I see no self seeding.

OK. Thanks. That's my observation too. They probably germinate quickly on warm spring days and vanish during cold spring nights.

I guess I have to continue to do what I am doing now - throw seeds into soil at the beginning of June. They germinate and grow fast.

i bet part of the reseeding problem.. is they dont fall apart ... and spread.. so they either rot.. or are fodder for furry vermin during winter...

just guessing ...

might want to try balsam on your list ....

ken

thx. I have enough for now. I have perennials and bulbs too in the same beds. Just needed to add Zinnia to the mix.

It might be that the seed from zinnias freeze. The ones you mentioned do well will tolerate frost but zinnias don't. Snaps will self seed and do well but they sprout around 60 degrees and grow slowly until they get temperatures warm enough so maybe you are digging them out as weeds. Marigolds are frost sensitive too so maybe that's why you have a problem.

Thank you. I really dont have a problem with snaps or marigolds. I simply state they are not as prolific as calendula or larkspur.

A big part of the issue is that birds loooooove zinnia seeds almost as much as they love sunflower seeds.

At the end of the year, when i'm doing my fall cleanup of my beds, i take the dried zinnia heads and break them up over the area I want them next year, and I always get flowers with no other work. I think if you just leave them they don't break up enough and eventually just break off and blow away.

Blujen, for the purposes of this conversation, it would be helpful to know your general location.

Sorry about that, not sure why it doesn't show, it used to! I'm in 6b, Wichita KS!

I also live in zone 6b, right on the 7a line in northern De. I am about 35 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Anyway, I've grown large zinnias in the same sunny spot for a few years now, and seeds from those plants wind up all over the ground in that large bed, and end up in nearby beds as well, many hundreds of seeds. Some undoubtedly get mixed in with loose soil and mulch in fall even. Yet they DO NOT come back the next year. However, we've had back to back cold winters with significant snow as well. That is probably why none of the seeds ever grow the next season.

I always have to replant new seeds every year. But, each year there has been 1-2 zinnia plants that inexplicably come up from a deep crack on the edge of the sidewalk or a crack between pavers and the home's brick wall. So I do end up with just 1-2 volunteers from the past season, which I allow to grow.

Moral of story: Zinnia seeds probably won't come back next year in 6b unless we get a mild winter or you have random cracks that they can hide in which provide some shelter from the cold.