Where have all the zinnias gone?

Last year I planted zinnia plants some time in June. I looked for them this year and could not find them at the cut-rate garden shops - Home Depot and local supermarket, where I bought them last year.


I live in Zone 7. Is it too early for zinnias?

Where have all the zinnias gone?
Zinnias are so easy to grow from seed, which is what I do. If our garden stores had them in th 6-packs, I'd buy them, but all they ever offer is the 3" pot. Which costs as much as 2 packs of seeds.


Park Seed Company, Greenwood SC, is a great place to order from. Zinnias jump out of the ground in 5 days - also gardeners say that zinnias don't love to be moved so you do better planting them in their ultimate home.


The problem I have is that my 2 dogs have develped a taste for zinnia leaves, I can't put them in my backyard bed anymore.... That's where all the zinnias have gone in my life.
Reply:My zinnias here in Missouri are waaaay late due to the unseasonably cool weather. I bought more than a dozen seed packets and the seeds are not germinating in large numbers as they usually do. I am going to wait for another weeks and replant a whole new batch of seeds. Growing from seed gives you MUCH more variety than buying in the store, and you will gete an astonishing variety! Plus you can capture thousands of seed to plant next year and share, at the end of the zinnia season. Free zinnias for life! I have heirloom seed I have been using all my adult life. It is really fun to have those colorful little friends visit year after year!
Reply:Nope. I have them in stores here (SE Virginia) still, but it is running a little late, actually. You can still get a couple packages of seeds and scratch them into the ground, though, and they will work this year, just a little later than normal. Get a spare package to start with next year as soon as the last frost is completed.
Reply:I suspect that if you let them go to seed you'll be seeing them everywhere when the weather warms ups a little. They reseed readily in the garden, in the lawn, in the compost. They're tough little buggers.
Reply:I have no idea, but I've been wondering the same thing in Georgia about vincas. For years they've been for sale all over the place starting about April and this year, no where.
Reply:You will be seeing them as the night temps get closer to 70 degrees. :o)





Zone 7b here. Winter doesn't want to leave, we had 40 degrees at night last week or so.

skates