I looked for Burpee's Big Tetra seeds because I had success with them the past couple of years, but I didn't see any on the racks. I came home with State Fair (an old favorite), Giant Cactus-Flowered, Burpeeana Giants, Exquisite (open red and age to pink) and Isobellina, a lovely buff. I thought I might plant the last two in one bed and the remainder in another.

I find I often have to do a lot of replanting of zinnia seeds, and I'd appreciate knowing how you good zinnia gardeners handle this. I assume direct sowing is better than starting them indoors? Or is that no longer true?

Thanks!

Susan

"I find I often have to do a lot of replanting of zinnia seeds, and I'd appreciate knowing how you good zinnia gardeners handle this. I assume direct sowing is better than starting them indoors?"

If you are growing a limited number of zinnias, starting them indoors gives you a several weeks headstart and if you repot them to let them get large enough to be immune to cutworms, you can eliminate that problem. There have been times in the past when cutworms were a serious threat for me.

But if you intend to grow a lot of zinnias, it simply isn't practical to start them all indoors. Planting the zinnia seeds directly in the ground outdoors is a lot less trouble than starting them indoors. You will lose some to cutworms and such, but just do as you have been doing, and replant to fill in the bare spots.

If you want to go to the trouble, you can grow zinnias indoors to the flowering stage, or even complete the generation to indoor saved seeds.

I do that as part of my hobby of growing and breeding zinnias, but it is more trouble than necessary for normal zinnia gardening.

ZM

I start most of my bedding plants inside, all my zinnias. I use a couple of germination flats, and I heat the soil with heating cables. Each flat does about 150 or seeds for me (only some of them are zinnias). The seedlings, when they are ready to pull from the plants and transplant, are planted into flats with cell pack inserts. I usually use 2 sizes: one is a 32 cell insert and the other is a 48 cell. I've been moving to the 48s simply for convenience...I end up with about 6 full flats of plants instead of 10 or so. Easier to manage.