OP ... open pollinated .. plants rarely come true from seed... as such is part of the definition of a species... and your individually colored plants are not species by definition ... they are culitvars ...

regardless.. go for it ...

ken

Ken knows me too well. With zinnias, finding out is half the fun. Ken is right, open pollinated zinnias do get a significant amount of cross pollination by the bees.

" If I save seeds off these plants, will they be true to the plant they came from or will I have a mixed up mess??"

I wouldn't say they will be a mixed up mess. If you save seeds from just those zinnia flowers that were your favorites, you could actually have a better zinnia patch next year.

When you stop to think about it, the zinnia seeds that you planted last Spring had also been pollinated by bees, so a significant fraction of them were already F1 hybrids, courtesy of the bees.

Some people say you shouldn't save seeds from F1 hybrids, because the resulting F2 generation can vary wildly with various recombinations of the genes in the F1 hybrid. But variety is "the spice of life" and you might like some of next year's zinnias even better than those this year.

If you know which zinnias you liked best, just save seeds from them. We haven't had a killing frost here yet, and if the same holds true for you, you now have an opportunity to mark which zinnias are your favorites, so that you can save seeds just from them.

You don't have to wait for the zinnia heads to die and turn brown. You probably have a lot of plump mature green seeds in some of those heads right now, and you can pull those seeds out by their petals and dry them for a week or two on a newspaper.

Saving green seeds from zinnias has a couple of advantages. You avoid rain causing pre-sprouting of brown zinnia seeds in the flower heads, and you beat the seed-eating birds (like finches) to the seeds. Just let your green seeds dry out before you package them.

ZM

"OK, I'm going to give it a try. I may have to do a couple of rows in my vege garden.
I think I have to save the present patch for new seed-I even had people come in from the street to see this years crop. "

OK Flowergirl, just so we are on the same page -- When you say "I may have to do a couple of rows in my vege garden. I think I have to save the present patch for new seed..." it sounds like you intend to plant those green seeds right now, or in the very near future. I am not suggesting that.

Since we both are in Kansas, we can't plant zinnias outside until next Spring. The green seed thing was presented as a possibly desirable alternative to the "regular" way of letting the zinnias die and then saving seeds from the brown dead flowers.

As part of my zinnia hobby, I am now planting some green seeds inside in pots under fluorescent lights, but I was not suggesting that you plant the green seeds before next Spring.

"My friend and I ordered $40 worth of seed, and have certainly got our moneys worth..."

Just out of curiosity, who did you order those seeds from?

ZM

Zinnias may be the easiest seed I know of to save. You just play She Loves Me with the petals. Flimsy and white means that floret loves you NOT.