I grow zinnias every year. I like their strange, stiff habit and butterflies love them. Their flowers last for ages and there are some wonderful colours and colour combinations. They are Central American annuals and they do have something about them that not only looks warm and sunny but they also appreciate warmth and sun. They are also easy to grow. They dislike damp and grey conditions but, apart from late summer when cool, damp weather leads to grey mould and makes them look very sad. they always seem to cope with an Irish summer quite well.

They dislike root disturbance and it could be better to sow them where they are to grow rather than treat them as a half-hardy annual but I get away with this by sowing a pinch of seeds in cell trays. When I am sure they are big enough, I pinch off the excess and plant out the cells, each with two seedlings. This year snails attacked the seedlings repeatedly so I had to make a second sowing – you would not know which was which – the later sowing has caught up. Even when planted out, the snails were a nuisance. It is a completely different topic but I think that the organic, ferrous, slug pellets are useless.

The zinnias needed frequent water after planting out in the dry, hot conditions of June but July has suited them better and they are growing fast and strongly, as I would expect. And many are blooming. In fact a lot more have flowered and I have been cutting them to sell on the flower stall (for charity) and they sell immediately with their candy colours.

But these were supposed to be ‘Salsiando’ which is a mix of double, red and gold and red and white flowers. Well, there is hardly one that is as it should be. There are lots of pretty flowers but almost all are single. It is quite annoying. Unfortunately it is not the only case of ‘not what I ordered’ this year. My ‘all-female’ cucumbers, expensive F1 hybrid seeds, have sexual identity issues and are all producing male flowers. Now these ‘all-female’ cucumbers ‘can’ produce male flowers if they are stressed but my plants have been looked after well and all the plants are producing male flowers, by the dozen. They are also not the mini-cukes they should be. In fairness, the cucumbers are great, but they are not what I paid for.

Anyway, there is not much I can do now except enjoy the flowers I have.

zinnia salsiando