Have they germinated yet? And what kind of Zinnias did you plant? Tall or short? And how formal is this "Production" going to be? How appreciative will those attending be of a student-produce center piece? Even if they haven't bloomed yet, you could dress them up with some ribbon or small balloons and put a small sign on them explaining where they came from. Are the students going to take them home eventually, or will they be planted out on the school grounds at some point? How old are these students? All of these details would influence how I would approach this dilemma. Does that make sense? The attitudes of all involved toward the students, the production, extacurricular forms of education, etc will effect whether it's worth taking a risk that the flowers might not be gorgeous. Good luck. I think it's a great idea. I've not grown enough Zinnias to know how fast they'll grow--especially in a greenhouse in the sunshine of zone 3. Hopefully , some one more experienced will pipe in.

Martha

Thanks Martha. I'll try to answer some of your questions.

I left the seed packets at school, but I think they are a shorter variety. They have germinated, but haven't reached the true leaf transplant stage. They are in seed flats now and we're going to transplant to bigger pots on March 12th.

The event is for grandparent's day, but it is a private school and expectations are pretty high. I love the idea of a card explaining who created them.

I think making the pots nice and having a back up (like your balloon idea) are key. I was also thinking of adding rye grass to the pots a week or two prior to the event. That way if the flowers aren't blooming and we have to add balloons, there will still be some green.

I would hope grandparents would be pretty forgiving. And they should want to know everything about what the kids are doing at school, so they'd love to see the plants. Is there any way you can give the plants to the grandparents as gifts? Or would that ruin the chance for the kids to see the final product? It would be fun for the grandparents to have the flowers in their yard or on their porch to remind them of their grandchildren when they're not around.

Again, good luck. You sound like a great teacher.

Martha

I would love to be able to do enough plants for all the grandparents, but we usually get close to 500 at the event and it would be beyond my capabilities (and time) to get that many ready.

We do a sale of tomato plants and herbs that the kids have grown in the spring and we often get grandparents coming in for that. We were going to sell the zinnias at the sale, and I guess we could sell the centre pieces from grandparent's day there, too.

It is easy for me to do the gardening with the kids because I love it so much myself, but I wish the school could afford to hire me to just teach the gardening and take care of the grounds. It can be hard to find the time to fit it in when I teach full time and have a busy family to take care of.

I've read a little about zinnia's and, unfortunately, it sounds like they don't transplant well. I think they should do okay, but I am going to have a back up plan - just in case.

I usually direct seed zinnias. They are available as transplants, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Oh, and thanks for the reminder. I think it's time to sow those and the cosmos.

Btw, great idea to add the rye grass!

If they are not blooming, make copies of the seed package and glue them to a crooked twig.

2. use colored raffia to tie around the pots.