How to Grow Zinnia Flowers

Zinnia (Zinnia elegans) is an annual plant with long stalk grown ideally for flower arrangement and flower vases and other decorations. It comes in a wide variety of colors you can choose for your flower arrangement purposes from white, red, rose, pink, multi-colored, yellow, and orange.

It's easy to grow and you can them in your garden with a combinations of all the different colors to add beauty and attractive landscape in your flower garden.

Before starting your gardening activities, you've to set the requirements to succeed in your zinnia flower garden venture.

Soil. The best soil for Zinnia is a well-drained soil rich in organic materials. They also thrives well in a poor soils but you should put some amendments to improve your soil conditions and much vigorous plants and flowers.

Propagation. Start sowing your seeds in your prepared seed box or germinating tray or directly into the flower plots. But, for best result, sow your seeds indoors in your germinating tray and plant them later in the plots to have a better spacing distance between plants.

Once the seedlings are ready for transplanting, set them in the plots after the last frost and maintain the water supply to the make soil moist during the plant's growing period until the flowers starts to bloom.

Planting distance varies with the size of varieties you planted. For miniature varieties the distance should be four to six inches between hill, while those giant varieties should be spaced one to two feet between hill.

Plant Management. When the plants are already set in the beds and fully established, place some mulching materials around the base to ward-off weed interruption and maintain soil moisture. To have your Zinnia produce more flowers, apply with a general purpose fertilizer at least once a month or as the need arises.

Your Zinnia will start to bear flowers during the mid-summer period until the start of the frost. When you see some dead flowers, remove them to encourage some new blooms to grow. For giant type, prune those branches that are long to induce some new branches to grow.

Pest and Disease Control. Zinnia is a hardy plant and resistant to pests and diseases attack. If you observe some minor pest and disease infestation, just simply treat them with a homemade insecticidal soap, or plants along side with plant or insect repellents. Fungicide also helps controlling some disease that may attack the plants.

Make your garden filled with lots of Zinnia multi-colored flowers for your ready to use in your flower arrangement projects, for special occasions like weddings, birthdays, re-unions and other gatherings that needs flowers to beautify the affairs.

Happy gardening!