Annual Flower Seeds

8 years ago

My zone is 4B/5A ...every year I buy a lot of annuals flowers because I love them and they bloom forever. Last week I bought seeds of the following flowers: Zinnia, Stocks, Cosmos, Four O'Clock and several packages of what they call Flower Garden (Old Fashion Mixed Annuals). I will not be starting them indoors. Do you thinks I'll have a chance with sowing them outdoors? At 3 packages for 1$ I thought I couldn't go wrong.

Featured Answer

docmom_gw

8 years ago

I would recommend using the wintersowing method. If you plant the seeds in any container with drainage holes and a clear plastic cover, and place them in a sunny location outside, they will sprout sooner than if planted in the cooler ground. You can cover them with a towel at night to protect from frost, so you can get them started up to a month before your last frost date. Then, transfer them to the ground when fear of frost is past. No need for hardening off. Just remove the plastic cover once most have germinated, to avoid cooking the sprouts, if temperatures get above 50F or so.

Martha

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Comments (8)

zen_man
8 years ago
" Do you thinks I'll have a chance with sowing them outdoors? "

When is your safe no-frost date? No point getting them up only to have a freeze kill them.

ZM
marielle thanked zen_man
marielle
Original Author
8 years ago
Apparently 21 - 31 May....I suppose I could expect bloom by mid August and enjoy them until the first fall frost. What do you think?
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 years ago
Most annuals are intended to be direct sowed. They usually germinate rapidly and grow fast......I'd suspect you wll only need a few weeks before you see flowers, if temps are warm at the time of sowing. Cosmos and 4 o'clocks for sure......never personally seeded the others.
marielle thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
zen_man
8 years ago
Hi marielle,

" When is your safe no-frost date? Apparently 21 - 31 May....I suppose I could expect bloom by mid August and enjoy them until the first fall frost. "

I don't know about the Stocks, Cosmos, and Four O'Clocks, but I am a zinnia hobbyist, and can discuss them. Zinnias normally bloom in 6 to 8 weeks from being planted, and continue blooming until the first Fall frost. So if you planted zinnia seeds outdoors on June 1st, you could expect blooms by mid to late July and on-wards until your first fall frost, which, based on your zone of 4b/5a I am guessing would be sometime in September. Powdery Mildew would probably become a problem as the nights became cool in the Fall.

If you started the zinnias indoors under lights, you could set out plants instead of seeds, and get an earlier start on the zinnia blooming period. Here in East Central Kansas, I have several weeks longer growing season than you do, but that is not long enough for me, so I have an indoor zinnia project that lets me grow zinnias year round.
I can grow 4 generations of zinnias in a year, two outside and two inside, which accelerates my amateur zinnia breeding activities.

ZM
marielle thanked zen_man
marielle
Original Author
8 years ago
ZM Your post made me smile. Thank you for this info. You have a nice set up for your babies! I've been living where I am now for 7 years and frost never came in September...actually September is spectacular. Frost happens more in mid-late October, then we have Indian Summer.. so a lot of my annuals survive a long time. I'm impressed with your 4 generations of zinnias in a year. I did buy a few packages of Zinnia seeds...the ones I bought are called State Fair Tetra Flowered Mixed.
zen_man
8 years ago
Hi marielle,

" Frost happens more in mid-late October, then we have Indian Summer.. so a lot of my annuals survive a long time. "

Wow! I would never have thought that for zone 4b/5a. That is about the same expected Killing Frost Date as I have here in east central Kansas zone 5b.

" ...the ones I bought are called State Fair Tetra Flowered Mixed. "

State Fair is an heirloom tetraploid. I stick with diploids almost exclusively, because I use almost all of my zinnias as potential breeders to cross the "best" ones with each other. The word "best" is open to some interpretation. For the last several years I have been "going for" different flower forms in zinnias, and I have had unexpected success doing that. A tubular petal mutant has made a variety of new zinnia flower forms possible, like this one for example.
I enjoy breeding zinnias as a hobby, because it is easy to do, and zinnias can be full of surprises.

ZM
marielle
Original Author
8 years ago
Truly beautiful! Thank you for sharing this picture. You must have a decent set up at home to experiment and all. I was told I was in zone 4B and also 5A here in Atlantic Canada where I live. With climate change ...who knows where we're going? A few years ago I bought a couple of beautiful shrubs Japanese Andromeda Mountain Fire and saw when I got home on the sticker Zone 6A and they are doing fine. Of course they are not growing as fast as if they were in their right zone . I must have little micro climates here and there on my homestead.