Zinnas don't look like pictures. Has any grown lilac empress Zinnas?

6 months ago

Ive been waiting with excitement for months since planting my zinnas for them to bloom. I got the lilac empress zinnas. They are supposed to have huge blooms and the pictures online are a nice bright purple. Mine just started blooming and they are small and very light in color. Has anyone else grown these before? Will they get bigger?

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porkchop_z5b_MI

6 months ago

last modified: 6 months ago

On-line pictures often are misleading.

I've not grown Lilac Empress. I think what you have is a clean, clear pink -- I think the color is quite pretty, albeit not what you wanted. For taller zinnias that are more vibrant rose, try "Uproar Rose" or "Purple Prince". These two are close in color when I've grown them with the "Purple Prince" leaning more purple, but I think "Purple Prince" is open-pollinated (?), so there may be variation.

Here's "Uproar Rose" at my other house:

And "Purple Prince":

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Comments (7)

Mandi (zone5)
Original Author
6 months ago
Uproar rose is beautiful
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Mandi (zone5)
Original Author
6 months ago
I have noticed they are getting darker in color everyday ill put in pictures. Purple prince is my favorite i started growing zinnas last year I grew Purple prince and northern lights. The first photo is a few days ago the second and 3rd photo today.It looks like a completely different zinna today. Im noticing this this variety starts off really light then gets darker. Still different from photos.
porkchop_z5b_MI
6 months ago
That makes sense, sometimes flowers look different when they're in the process of opening up vs when they're fully open.

What is great about "Uproar Rose" is it has a good branching structure. Some tall zinnias don't branch much and IMO don't have a very nice form ("Benary's Giant" series, for example), the branching makes for a much more attractive plant overall IMO. You can kinda see what I mean in my two photos above -- the "Uproar Rose" are fuller, bushier plants than the "Purple Prince".
Mandi (zone5)
Original Author
6 months ago
I'm definitely going to try uproar rose next year. I love purple and pinks. This is the zinnas today I'm really liking the color. Hopefully they get more cactus like.
diggerdee zone 6 CT
6 months ago
Mandi I grew Lilac Empress for the first time last year, and I can't remember what I didn't like about them (sorry!) but I gave away the rest of the seeds this spring because I didn't bother sowing them. They just didn't do it for me. I gotta say though, your last photo there is pretty darn nice! :)

But I will heartily second Uproar Rose and Purple Prince. I too love pinks and purples and these are really nice.

Two other colors I'll recommend. One is Isabellina, a pale yellow. I grew them for the first time last year - not my usual color choice, but I was pleased with them. I thought they were elegant.

The second - well, the second I'm not quite sure which one it was lol. It was either Scarlet Flame, or Benary's Giant Scarlet. I've grown both for many years (used to sell bouquets) but for some reason last year they just really really popped. A real wow kind of color.

:)

Dee
Mandi (zone5)
Original Author
6 months ago
The isbellina zinnas are really pretty. Im starting to like the cactus lilac ones more now that their darker in color but I wish I would of planted more purple prince this year.I planted some but more of the lilac empress. Also I picked up a pack of pink double enchantress at the grocery store I thought they would be really pretty. Now that they're coming up im getting orange and white flowers so far🤦🏼‍♀️😢 so they must of been mislabeled. I made a new garden been this year for just zinnas it was going to be all pink and purple but that's ok it still looks pretty and butterfly's love them.