Hi. Mentioned the work that agent1 is doing and now I'd like to compliment 9crow on the beautiful photos! Is that second orange and pink bloom seed grown from President Johnson? It is marvelous! My husband walked by when it was on the screen and said...What is THAT? I love the color!. Is the slight leaf curl from environmental conditions, or is it something that came from the cross? I am so looking forward to seeing what the others look like. How long does it take from seed to bloom? It took my trumpet lily crosses three years to bloom. I lost several of them to slugs. Most of them were white, (these were trumpet lilies), and I kept them. They are still growing quite well, although they are not as nice as the original white trumpets. MM Geez, I did it again. Getting my info. confused. I'd like to blame it on my chemo, but that was three years ago...hope it isn't old age. :). I do wish that most zinnias were better branching. I plan to use my commercial packets this year. Last year I was enamoured of Rudbeckias, and we missed the vibrant colors and bouquets of zinnia. Do you know how long the seeds are viable? Guess I'll find out pretty soon as I am going to start a few of them next week. It's still too early, but we have gerryrigged a type of mini-greenhouse with old sliding glass doors. I can also reseed later on. Some years I've waited until June 1st due to our weather, but they still bloomed beautifully through September. Dave. Were you considering Amaryllis at one time? I think I would select zinnias as possible hybridizing material if we had more reliable summer weather. Had to sew yet another container of Mikey FX3...Sadiemae, smelled the catnip on my work table and knocked over the container of seed. I still managed to save thousands of them. I just sowed more thickly in the new container, and scattered seed all over the gardens. Hope you are all feeling a touch of spring in between those storms. SAM