Garden Gram #11: Color Coordinating the Zinnias

For those who just can't help themselves.

Planting your zinnias in groups of similar colors is a fun idea, but it can be a bit of a Chinese puzzle.

Okay, this week and next hold big work deadlines for me, so between the desk work/office meetings/events and trying to get plants in the ground/keep them alive/sell more tomato plants, I’ll be sending short, focused Garden Grams. Today I have just one simple idea: You, too, can color coordinate your zinnia rows. Laugh if you like, or humor me for a minute…

Several nights ago, I lay awake trying to remember the colors of each zinnia variety I’d started this year. Then I arranged them in rows by color in my head. (Then I fell asleep - ha!) The next morning, I just hopped out of bed really early, gathered all the zinnia seedlings from the hoop house, and headed out to the garden to arrange them on the bed we had prepared for them. (I always pop all of the seedlings out of their cells and lay them out at the correct spacing before planting – each with a bit of Espoma Flower-Tone.)

Always get your irrigation hose down before planting; next I’ll be putting the Hortonova netting on over the stakes to support the zinnas as they get taller.

I had the best of intentions. I laid them out from lightest to brightest, starting with White Wedding and ending with Unicorn Mix. The bed is just wide enough for 6 zinnias across so I tried to plant one (crosswise) row for each variety. But in reality some got more space than others because I wound up with 5 seedlings of some varieties and 8 or 9 of others. I did label the rows, but I really rushed through the planting at the end in order to be at my desk by 9, so I think some things got jumbled.

So honestly, I have no idea whether they really will create a rainbow of color when they bloom. For one thing, a lot of them are Floret pastel mixes that I’ve never grown. In general, I went heavy on the pastels this year, and lighter on the bright stuff (except for the Queen series, which I adore). But I think it could be a gently shifting spectrum (if you squint) and that could be lovely.

These are varieties from years past (along with a few Floret photos, used with permission). This year, who knows how the palette will turn out!

But if you’re planning a cutting garden, it’s kind of a fun approach – to try and group similar colors together. If you’re serious about selling your flowers, it will help you develop palettes and pair similar hues for bouquets.

If I’d had time, I would have gotten out my colored pencils – or watercolors, if I had the skills like my friend Lorene over at A Handmade Garden – and created the color palette on paper.

But the list below of what I planted will have to do. (The emoji color coding isn’t remotely like what the colors truly are – it’s just me having fun.) I’ll let you know later in the summer how it all goes.

(Please note, I follow Floret’s zinnia spacing - about 6 to 7 inches between each plant. This is very close together, which yields a lot of flowers, and the plants help support each other, but in my experience, the blooms are also slightly smaller. If you’re only planting a few zinnias, you can certainly plant them farther apart and enjoy bigger blooms.)

This year’s varieties:

🤍    White Wedding

🦢    Oklahoma Ivory

🌼    Giant Creamy Yellow

🌞    Golden Hour

🍯    Dawn Creek Honey

🥂    Alpenglow

🍧    Dawn Creek Pastels

📀    Precious Metals

👚    Little Flower Girl

🌸    Blomma Farm Mix

🐖    Dawn Creek Blush

🦩    Oklahoma Salmon

🦩    Benary’s Giant Coral

🦩    Benary’s Giant Salmon Rose

🦞    Benary’s Giant Carmine Rose

🌂   Benary’s Giant Lilac

💜    Zinderella Lilac

🌺   Queen Red Lime

🍊    Queen Lime Orange

🍊    Queeny Pure Orange

🍑    Queen Lemony Peach

🌈    Unicorn Mix

I’ll be back in your inbox on Sunday with the weekly essay! 🌱