A cottage garden favorite, the bright and bold zinnia has earned the honor of being named Annual of the Year for 2011. Celebrate the year of the zinnia by filling your garden with colorful zinnias this year.
Zinnias come in nearly every color of the rainbow, from glistening, pristine white to deepest purple. In addition, there are fun candy-striped zinnias in sweet and tropical colors. A favorite of songbirds and butterflies, zinnias are long-lasting, versatile garden plants that will yield months of cut flowers for bouquets and arrangements and garden color right up until the first hard frost.
There are many fun ways to enjoy zinnias in the garden. Combining colors is exciting and will yield beautiful results when the plants hit their peak in late July and August. Zinnias come in a wide variety of types. There are giant, cactus-blooming zinnias that boast thin, wiry petals in great clusters that can reach 6 inches across. There are short, miniature-blooming zinnias that are both single blooming (one row of petals) and those that boast layer upon layer of tightly packed petals. There are low-growing carpet zinnias and giants that will reach 4 feet high and wide if you give them the room. The more you cut them back, the greater they will branch out and form new flower buds.
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