• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Start Here
    • Seed Starting
    • Composting Basics
    • Vegetable Gardening
    • Growing Fruit
    • Growing Herbs
  • Recipes
    • Canning and Food Preservation
    • Vegetarian Meals
    • Salad Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Dinner Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
  • Books & Classes
    • Classes
    • Books
    • Books for Christian Herbalists
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Awards and Accolades
    • Privacy Policy

Need an Easy to Grow Flower? Try Zinnias

August 13, 2013 by Jeanne

Zinnias have to be one of the easiest, least expensive, and most beautiful flowers to grow in the garden. They’re easy to start from seeds, bloom as soon as they can, attract butterflies, make great cut flowers…can you ask for anything more in a flower?

These are zinnias blooming today in my garden

Zinnias are native to the southwestern United States, but you can find them growing wild throughout Central and South America. That’s probably why they do so well in my garden, and why I find them so easy to grow; they’re native annuals.

They’re of the family Asteraceae, or aster, and there are about 20 species found in nature. People have, of course, hybridized them, and that’s where gardeners can really have fun.

I grow dwarf zinnias, as well as the giant cactus-flowering kind that can get several feet tall.  I’ve seen candy striped varieties offered in seed catalogs, double flowering ones, and a whole bunch in between.

Zinnias can grow in average soil as soon as it is warm enough to plant the seeds and after all danger of frost is past. They need average moisture but once established, can withstand some drought. They do need full sun, so plant them where they will get plenty of sunlight.  I like to cut zinnia bouquets to bring into the house, but beware; I find that tiny spiders love to hide among the flowers, and often the small, white or light green spiders on my kitchen table once they’ve hopped off the zinnias!

If you want to attract butterflies to the garden or are just looking for an easy-to-grow annual, you can’t go wrong with zinnias.

All photos were taken by me, Jeanne Grunert, in my garden today except for the one above. I took that picture, but it was taken last year.

Jeanne
Jeanne

Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Previous Post: « August Gardening Tasks and Tip Sheet Is Ready
Next Post: The First Organic Apples »

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. The Absolute Easiest Way to Grow Flowers: Carpet Bedding - Home and Garden Joy says:
    February 23, 2016 at

    […] for my garden, one bed is usually planted with just zinnias.This year, I plan to use two different colors of marigolds to try my hand at carpet bedding. […]

Primary Sidebar

Learn Gardening!

writer Jeanne Grunert

Hi, I'm Jeanne Grunert, master gardener, gardening book author, herbalist, and writer. If you're new to gardening, welcome! I make it simple and easy for you to grow a gorgeous garden and cook with the fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs that you grow.

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • YouTube

Featured

logo of the american horticulture society

Home Garden Joy was featured by the American Horticultural Society on #plantchat.

My Books on Amazon

cover of plan and build a raised bed garden

Visit my author page on Amazon to find all of my fiction and gardening books.

Herbal Academy Teachers

Footer

peach tree cuttings in a pot on a windowsill

Propagating Peach Trees from Softwood Cuttings

We decided that propagating peach trees from softwood cuttings was the way to go when we couldn’t find the variety we wanted at the store this past week. The best eating peach we’ve ever grown here at Seven Oaks Farm is “Red Haven.” It was recommended by our neighbor, a man whose family has farmed…

Read More

soul in a yellow mug against pine panelling

Made From Scratch Chicken Vegetable Soup Recipe

This is the best made-from-scratch chicken vegetable soup recipe you’ll ever taste. It’s a favorite of my family and I’m betting it will quickly become a favorite of your family’s, too. As part of my ongoing quest to test and taste every recipe in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook 100th Edition, I’ve made the Vegetable Soup…

Read More

A loaf of bread on a plate

Water Bread – Recipe Review

Once you make water bread, you’ll never eat store bought white bread again. In fact, you won’t be able to look at a loaf of “white bread” from the market and consider it bread, in any sense of the word, after you’ve taken a bite of the real thing. Hot. Crunchy crust. Tender, flaky, soft…

Read More

lemon on a lemon tree

Can You Grow a Lemon Tree from a Seed?

If you’ve ever wondered can you grow a lemon tree from a seed, the answer is yes, you can. But it takes patience and time to coax the tree into producing fruit. In the meantime, you’ll have to tend a tree that wants to grow into six, seven or more feet tall. Here’s the story…

Read More

Copyright © 2022 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme