Hi Bethanney,

I get the same problem with zinnias that have been grown in place. Cute little birds decide to land on the zinnia head and sure enough, the flower stem can't withstand the impact and weight of their landing.

Just cut off the broken stem with the doomed bloom and your zinnias will put out side branches with more blooms. Much to the delight of those cute little birds. Oh, well. I've got to breed some zinnias with super strong stems. I should plant some Benary's Giants. They are supposed to have strong stems.

ZM

This post was edited by zenman on Sun, Jul 20, 14 at 23:52

Thank you, ZM! Sorry I'm just now replying, this was my first post and I thought I'd get an e-mail if someone replied. I have to check my settings and/or spam folder. I also "lost" my post and couldn't find it in a search. GardenWeb's staff were very helpful in pointing out the handy "clip this post" option (and provided me a link to this one), so now I am good to go. :)

That's exactly what they've been doing, branching out to the side with intention to bloom. I say "with intention" because they sure are slow going! But maybe they just seem slow in comparison to my sunflowers, which took off like rocket ships. Oh how the birds are loving those now!

I thought I'd get an e-mail if someone replied. I have to check my settings and/or spam folder.

==>>> you will get emails if you check the little box under where you type ...

or the other things you spoke of ...

ken