Well, they're annuals, so they are near the end of their lives as soon as they sprout. There may be some bacterial leaf spot present on your plants, that's pretty common with Zinnias. If you trim the spent blooms down to the next pair of leaves, they won't look trimmed.

Hello lovemycorgi,

" Why are the leaves browning, I’m watering them sufficiently. "

Possibly a nutrient problem. I notice you have a mulch that contains old wood chips and the continued breakdown of that can deplete nutrients.

" I did find a slug on them this morning, but only one. "

Maybe that wasn't the only slug. That foliage looks rather damaged from something. You might want to go out at night with a flashlight and see what you can see.

And a mulch can be a breeding ground for several different pests, including slugs, sowbugs, and earwigs. I agree with Tiffany about trimming those stems to the next pair of leaves.

ZM

Thanks, Tiffany and zen_man! I’ll try both fertilizing and cutting the stems back. Not going out at night with a flashlight, however, I’ll be attacked by mosquitos. :-/

did you leave out.. the 6 weeks of drought and intense miserable heat and humidity in our glorious MI ... on some level ... tiff is spot on ... its just that time of the year in MI ... no matter how well you water ...

i grew these here and there over the years ... a hot soil summer plant ... that seems to take forever to finally do something ... a few weeks of glory.. and then all downhill from there ... eventually they just got edited from my spring to do list ... lifes too short ...

even if you drown your garden during such times.. there are just some plants that are going to get ragged this time of year ... dont look now.. but it is only 2 weeks to september ...

no harm trying to juice them a bit as zen suggests... but that isnt going to make them look all that much better ... maybe a new flush before it starts getting to cool for vigorous growth ...

but on the other hand.. since they are annuals... it might just be easier to rip them out.. and enjoy the thoughts of what you will plant there next year .... sometimes a blank canvas is more enjoyable than looking at a hot mess .. lol ...

did you ever do a post with pix of your whole garden ... i would really enjoy it.. or maybe i did already and have forgotten.. lol .. if not.. do so.. brag a little.. and soak up some glory ... and if you did.. give me a link and we will bring it back up to the top ....

ken

Thank you, Ken! My gardens are a work in progress and I’m barely at novice level. I try things and if they work, great…if not, I move them. I’d be embarassed to post them in their entirety and put my mistakes out there for all the world to see! Maybe earlier next summer when they’re looking their best.

As for zinnias, this was my first time with them. I wanted something yellow besides marigolds…any ideas?

I have to laugh. When I first started visiting the gardening forums, I read multiple posts by you (I think) of how much you hated maple trees. At the time, I was in the market for some new trees, and I thought - this guy is nuts, maples are the most beautiful trees ever, and they grow fast too, what could be better?? Well, I planted a beautiful maple specimen too close to one of my flower beds and now, four years later, I had to have my husband chop it down because its roots were intertwining with my perennials. He wasn’t very happy with me!

There are so many plants with yellow flowers. Way too many to name.

Agree, gardening under any kind of tree that drops a lot of seeds is frustrating. Maple sprouts at least are easy to pull, but a solid carpet of them or any other unwanted sprouts is frustrating.

Also agree that gardening is a process, not an isolated activity. Growing annuals that can only live for a few months, or putting plants where they end up being unhappy, or accidentally letting something cook because you were too busy, are things that all gardeners have done, probably many times. If there was a way for everything to be perfect every time, we would just read "the" handbook and have nothing to discuss. The only way to succeed is to try. Have fun & best luck!

and I thought - this guy is nuts, maples are the most beautiful trees ever

==>> pun intended .. ??? .... lol... actually... oaks can be some of the best.. and can almost match a maple with 3 to 5 feet of growth a year in our MI .. once they get going ... of course.. there can be the acorns.. and the fall squirrel invasion ...

i think ive seen parts of your garden in some posts along the way.. if so.. my recollection is you are being rather modest ... besides.. some of the worst garden i ever visited are by guys who take the best pix of just certain plants.. lol ... like junkie.. bazinga.. lol ... its all in the camera work ... lol

did you ever track down arrowhead alpines out brighton way ....

ken

ps" no i havent been to junkies... it was just a random shot over the bow.. lol ... see if hes paying attention... lol

Thank you, Tiffany! Believe me, I’ve tried to find THE ”handbook”, and have purchased multiple gardening books that I love reading and looking through. But, of course, there is no substitute for just getting outside and doing it. And it is fun! I make mistakes, but I dig those up and hide them in the backyard. :-)

Thank you, Ken, you are too kind! I‘m a fairly modest person overall and realize that in all things, there is always more to experience and learn. I was able to retire early from a career as an automotive engineer and I’m now enjoying using my creativity in my gardens, as I get ready to send my children off to MSU & UMich for some higher education. I’ve not had the opportunity to check out Arrowhead Alpines yet, but it’s on my list, as well as Van Atta’s in Lansing. We are lucky to have so many good nurseries in SE Michigan!

ken, could you be referring to the "vignettes" we ALL love to post? The perfect combination of 3 plants that for that moment in time, and only that moment, have unblemished foliage, all blooming simultaneously (for all of an hour) until the heavy rains come, the sun shines too brightly or the dog runs through the garden making a bee-line for this sycopated photo op?

I do it too. Or at least I try to create 'vignettes' too. I'm usually too lazy to go get my camera and my photos usually look like crap. I am certainly too lazy to keep relearning how to get my photos from my camera to the computer then post. (please, no instructions. I'm not incompetent, I'm lazy)

The greater challenge is the big landscape, the flow, the positive and negative spaces, repetition, timing of bloom and the way the damn sun changes its location as the season changes (or as the world turns) And it takes such time to create or change a landscape. and backbreaking labor and patience. I can change a small piece just with a shovel or my hand yanking a plant by the roots. But if I hate the location of that 15 year old hydrangea, "dealing with it" is a herculean job

My pleasure! My attitude is pretty much the same.

Hmm, I posted last night with photos and everything, and today it's disappeared! Ugh. I think what I said was, I don't garden in MI (I'm in CT) but I find it hard to believe that your zinnias would be done already. Mine (started from seed) are just starting to bloom here, and in the many years I've grown them I've never found them to be a "bloom and done" annual. They continue to grow and bloom well into October here, till a frost gets them. Unfortunately, I can't help you with what might be the matter with them (I'm terrible at diagnosing problems!) but I do think you should have more bloom left in them if you can figure out what the problem is.

As for other yellow blooms, the first thing that pops to mind is rudbeckia. I love them and let them reseed in my garden. They have a fairly long bloom time as well. There's also perennial rudbeckia.

reseeded mutated triloba (I guess technically BROWN-eyed Susan lol)

Indian Summer (one of my faves!)

And there's always sunflowers too!

Good luck!

:)

Dee

Thank you, Dee, beautiful photos!! I hope my zinnias aren’t done yet….despite the terrible looking foliage, they’re still putting out blooms, so I fertilized yesterday and we’ll see how it goes.

I love rudbeckia…in other people’s gardens! I planted six small Goldstrum four or five years ago and it had spread so much that I dug it all up this year and placed it in my backyard, bordering a forest. If they spread around back there, great. If the deer eat them, that’s fine too. I should probably research some better-behaved rudbeckia, I’m sure they’re not all like Goldstrum. :-)

Yes, I remember my mother had goldsturm in her garden and it spread a lot! Now, our front yards were tiny - about 20 x 10 with a sidewalk going through it to the door - so "spreading vigorously" is relative lol, but they did pop up in the neighbor's yard and my mother was always pulling some.

I find the annual rudbeckia's to be much better behaved. I let them reseed and in addition always start more each winter, because I do cut a lot for bouquets, so I want to make sure I have enough!

:)

Dee

Oooh! Oooh! You will love Van Atta's!! I'm embarrassed to admit how much money I have spent there over the years... The prices are lower than in the SE area, too -- not by a lot, but a buck or two or three a plant really adds up if you buy a lot. You'll find a decent amount of native perennials there, too. While you're over that way, check out Horrock's on 69/Saginaw Hwy -- great produce market, and they have a nursery section, too.

I love zinnias. Absolutely adore them. The tall ones, that is. Not a fan of the short cultivars with the exception of Magellan series. Mine get attacked by Japanese beetles and end up a ratty mess if I don't stay on the defensive against them. But, with these taller varieties, they're planted so I can enjoy the flowers from a distance -- I have surrounding plants that hide the foliage to a large degree, so I can tolerate the damage. I find once peak beetle season has passed, a gentle trim/deadhead session stimulates a quick response of fresh growth and all is well again. They don't peter out on me -- the show lasts through to the first frost, usually. But again -- these are the tall ones, the Benary's Giant series and Purple Prince, and I've also grown Uproar Rose in the past; all are stellar performers.

Benary's Giant Scarlet: (thinning out those grasses is on my to-do list...)

Uproar Rose (previous house):

Purple Prince: (other house -- don't have a good pic of PP or BG Purple at this house):

those are some great pix.. nicely composed also ... was that a real camera ... or a good phone ...

good to know you have one smart kid.. and one that went to moo U .. lol ...

ken

Uh, Ken...I don't have any kids. If that was me you're talking to. I do have two degrees, though -- so it's me who's smart. :ob

I went out and snapped a pic of some Benary's Giant Purple this morning. Those are "Mystic Spires" salvia in the foreground and background (and some fading Annabelles).:

Very nice mxk! I also always grow Uproar Rose and Purple Prince, along with various colors of Benary's Giants. I also like either Envy or BG Lime with Queen Lime Blush - a very pretty combination, IMO.

mxk I like the way you have your zinnias interplanted with your perennials. I do some of this, and am doing more each year, but I have usually tended to keep my zinnias and other annuals separate, in a cutting garden. This stems (haha, no pun intended!) from selling bouquets, and even now I like to cut a lot for myself, so it's hard to cut blooms from the perennial beds. But I'm getting there lol. But my question is, how big are your zinnias when you interplant them? I've tried planting seedlings in the perennial beds but they quickly get overshadowed by the quicker-growing perennials.

Sorry to hijack your thread, corgi! Hope you don't mind!

:)

Dee

I didn't grow zinnias this year, but I bought seed that I never got around to sowing. I usually try to grow the Benary Giants and the Lime and the Purple Prince and Uproar rose too. I am not familiar wtih the others, but hope to grow zinnias next year.

Lovemycorgi - I did the same thing with Goldstrum. It overran everything else, including my coneflowers that I loved so out they went. They did that pretty fast too.

When I have foliar issues, I hate it and I end up pulling as many leaves off as I dare and using fish emulsion. Most of the time that works out fine for me.

Around boob height. I save room in the beds to plant groupings of them rather than just one or two interspersed between other plants. I have found they still might need a stake here or there because they can get top heavy, but that may be my fault for tending not to pinch them when they're young plants to encourage lower branching.

ETA: I usually plant out seedlings mid to late May before the plants they're planted between really start putting on growth, so too much shade from surrounding plants usually isn't a problem in my case. But like I said -- I save room for them for the annual plantings in the beds, so that helps too, I would think. I imagine if I planted them near spring and early summer blooming perennials that put on a lot of growth sooner, yea too much shade might be an issue -- they really do perform better in full sun IME.

Thanks for the replies guys! And I def don’t mind the hijack, Dee, additional information is always appreciated!

Beautiful photos, mxk3! I know absolutely nothing about zinnias and this thread has helped me immensely. I’m trying to break out of the rut of only using impatiens, begonias, and petunias for my annual plantings. I’ve finally sworn off impatiens - no matter what repellent I use, the deer eat them.

Prariemoon2, it seemed like it took me forever to dig up my goldstrum, it had almost become a groundcover with nary a patch of available soil on one side of my garden bed…never again!

ken!!! Of course both of my little darlings are geniuses, how dare you say otherwise, lol…! The one going to MSU actually scored higher on his SAT than the kid going to Umich. But MSU is one of the top schools in the nation for his particular area of study.

Hi Dee,

If I weren't hobby-breeding zinnias, I definitely would be breeding cosmos. They have a comparable color range, a fascinating variety of flower forms including some that are really unusual, and a wider variety of plant habits, including some extra tall ones. And I suspect they have fewer diseases as well. But I was well into the zinnia hobby before I discovered cosmos. Oh well.

ZM

Oh, ZM, I think you may have to make time in your life to breed cosmos as well, lol! Just think what you could do with Seashells alone lol!

;)

Dee

Hello Dee,

I will continue to breed zinnias exclusively, but if I were breeding cosmos, the Seashells would figure prominently in my cross-pollinations. When I first saw those Seashells cosmos a few years ago, I was amazed by them. I have yet to achieve their equal in zinnias, and that remains one of my unfulfilled goals.

ZM