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Questions about my Zinnias
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Posted by Beth PA (bethb1028@yahoo.com) on Fri, Jun 2, 06 at 12:07
| I am 'new' to gardening. Fell in love with Zinnias last year & dedicated my flower bed to them this year (I only have a small space, I live in a ground apartment - I have about 25 total). They are doing great - most developing 3 -4 new flowers each. But because they get a decent amount of hot sun, the 'mother' flower (I'm sure there is a more technical name for the first flower I planted) fades away in color and eventually dies as they others begin to bud off the same root..and it's only been a month.
After reading a lot of the posts on here, I just cut the faded, dying ones down to the base of the flower stem (including the dying leaves on it). Remaining are the very pretty, developing 3-4 new flowers.
My question - will the flowers & leaves I cut grow back? This is my first experience with cutting.... I guess I'm trying to figure out how to best maintain them this summer.
(also when I google this stuff, they answers seem to tailor to people who really understand the garden 'language' etc . I need these things to be explained to me like I'm a 5 year old - I literally have no clue what I am doing.)
Thanks! :-)
beth |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Questions about my Zinnias
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Flowers form to make seeds for the survival of the species.
Flowers have a life cycle: new, vibrant, fading, dried, seed head.
What you did is correct: it is called deadheading.
It stimulates new flowers to come out in order to create seeds for survival of the species.
On zinnias, just cut the old flower stem down to where you see new buds or shoots (branches)developing on the stem. Your new flowers will appear there. Keep doing this all season to make bushier and more heavily flowered plants.
Everything is normal, your instincts are correct. All the language you are unfamiliar with is superfluous and you will learn by doing: then you will understand the language as you see the results of your actions. No worries! |
RE: Questions about my Zinnias
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| Well, it looks as though deep_roots covered the whole question :) The only thing I can add is: don't hesitate to ask whenever you come across a new (strange, peculiar, and/or incomprehensible) word or phrase. first: If it's new to you, then it's new to someone else and it really should be explained; and second: in gardening, there is often more than one way to do or say something, and this is a great forum for getting answers from many different people. |
RE: Questions about my Zinnias
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| Thank You both for your prompt responses... I am very excited to watch how these grow! :-) |
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