Mastering ZINNIAS: the easiest and most vibrant flowers!

[Music] hey guys it's Bri here at Blossom and Branch Farm and today we're going to talk about growing one of my favorite flowers in the garden which are zenas zenas Zen zenyas zenas quick story time when I first started the farm I had very little clue of what I was doing and I started a lot of my seeds inside including ones that really have no business being started inside or don't need to be started inside and one of those was zenyas and there were a lot of problems that came out of that but I also learned a lot from that and since then my zenya growing game has definitely stepped up last year I did an entire hedge of zenyas along the front of our property near the street and people loved stopping by and talking about it so the great thing about learning what I did about zenyas and we'll get into it here in a second but is that really informed how I started growing zenyas so I started all of my zenyas indoors first of all I was not the gardener then that I am now and remember that gardening is a journey uh I started out using those little biodegradable Pete pucks uh that you rehydrate and then they puff up and supposedly that little netting around the outside breaks down well that's not the case if you've ever used those little Peete pods is you know I think they're Jiffy or something and you rehydrate them and you plant them you'll find that often times you're pulling those up at the end of the year and all that netting is still there it does not biodegrade like it says it does if it does it takes a long time and so that was mistake number one was using those They just never performed that well I found that the roots got tangled in them so obviously now we soil block and we're growing in our wood trays so we've come a long way from using those Peach pods the other mistake that I made was starting them inside so starting zenya indoors is really not necessary in fact they really don't like it zenos don't like to have a lot of soil disturbance they don't like to have their Roots jostled a lot they really prefer to be direct seated so the good news is this means that zenyas are much easier to grow than we think they are we don't really have to start them inside so unless you have a very short growing season like a Zone 3 in which case you might want to get a jump on them inside but so growing them from seed indoors comes with some other issues as well aside from the fact that they don't like a lot of root disturbance they also don't do well with the in off process so you'll find that if you start zenyas inside often what happens is they get their first set of leaves once they get to that second set of leaves they tend to be prone toward viruses the leaves start to wilt it's nothing you're doing wrong it's just that zenyas don't like to be started inside that's just it it's just the nature of zenyas they just don't like it so don't feel bad if you've started zenyas from seed inside and they didn't do well it's just one of those plants that does not like to be started inside so the other thing that I found is that even though I hardened off those zenyas before I transplanted them out they still had a lot of problems with transplant shock so this is something that we can avoid by just starting them directly in the ground so lesson number one with zenyas is that they really prefer to be direct seated right into the ground this is actually great because it makes them a much easier flower to grow so versus something like Snap Dragons which for me I have to start inside about 10 weeks before our last frost and I kind of have to Baby them along zenyas don't need babying in fact they really don't like it so starting them directly in the ground is tip number one my second tip is another important one that you're not going to find on the back of a seed packet which is the packet is going to tell you to start them at lost Frost what I have learned is that zenyas prefer significantly warmer soil temperatures so there are a few plants that we grow that I have found not only don't like having cold Roots but if they have cold Roots they become more prone to diseases one of those is Tomatoes if we plant those out too early and The Roots get too cold they're more prone to things like blight and it's the same with zenyas so if we plant them out while the soil temperatures are still too cold that's when we find that they're prone to powdery mildew so powdery mildew is one of those diseases that zenas just tend to get it's something that they're all prone to but for the last 3 years we haven't had any powdery mildew in our field my theory is that it's because we are planting them when the soil temperatures are nice and warm so not only does that Aid in germination it helps us get a better germination rate when the soil temperatures are nice and warm but also I do think that there is a component of it helping reduce the amount of disease that we see in our Zena plants so if you're looking to reduce powdering buildo yes of course having good spacing is always going to help with that but I found that even zenyas that I have planted all by themselves in the middle of nowhere we'll get powdery mildew in our first season we did successions of zenyas and I started that first first succession right at last frost so right around the second to third week of May here for me in my zone 5 six but those ones versus the ones that I started later were the ones that were more prone to disease so take that as you will you can start them early if you want but usually I find that they struggle a little bit anyway as those temperatures warm up so better to just wait and start a little bit later speaking of successions tip number three make sure you are succession planting your zenyas so I like to do a succession planting about every month in the summer so I start my first one around early to mid June I'll do my next one early to mid July and then that's pretty much it for me because even if I start one in August it's probably not going to bloom by the time we get Frost so for myself I only do two successions of zenyas but a lot of people especially in longer growing zones can do more and if you have a nice long growing season that is frost free then feel free to succession plant every month um to me planting every two weeks is kind of Overkill I find that we usually get a great month of blooms out of a Zena plant so I don't think that every two weeks is necessary I find once a month is the perfect amount now where do zenyas like to be planted tip number four do not plant your zenyas in soil that has been heavily amended or soil that is your best soil zenas are going to want your worst soil so they prefer poor soils they will take a range of soils so they are okay with s your soils they're okay with clay soils they are okay in a range of different soils but what they don't like is too much nitrogen so this also ties into my next tip which is don't over fertilize your zenyas in fact I never fertilize my zenyas now I don't really use any fertilizers anyway but we do often apply our alala fertilizer and if you want that one I'll link it below so you can go back and watch that video plants that do need a little bit more nitrogen such as our sweet peas those ones I often will supplement with that alphaalpha fertilizer or some sheep manure but zenyas are one that I don't fertilize at all not only do zenas actually prefer less fertilizer they also tend to be more prone to getting things like aphids if we fertilize them with nitrogen fertilizers and this brings me to my last tip which is watering now zenyas like I mentioned they prefer poorer soils while they also don't like a lot of water and I have also found that this also ties into this powdery milw issue so for me in our clay soils I'm watering my zenyas maybe once a week um if it's very very dry and hot and if it's cooler I'll only water them every couple of weeks now clay soil does retain moisture a little bit more but I do find that zenyas once they have started growing they actually prefer a little bit of dry out in between waterings so make sure you're letting them dry out slightly in between waterings but while you're trying to get them germinated because we've direct sewn them they are going to want regular water while they're still establishing so we water pretty consistently overhead water just to make sure we're fully soaking the area where we've direct seated our zenas once I see that second and third set of leaves come up I back off of the watering and then that's when we start to let things dry out a little bit in between I'm going to give one more direct seating tip if you watched our cup flour Garden plan for a 4x8 bed that is full of easy cut flowers you may already know this tip I like to recommend laying something over the top of the area that you're direct seating a layer of burlap a layer of frost fabric will work even a cotton sheet will work and wet it and then that will help retain moisture especially if you're in a driver Zone like mine Colorado our Springs tend to be on the dry side it tends to be windy and that can really dry out the surface of the soil which is a problem if we're trying to get something direct seeded to germinate so in that case I direct seed I Lay My layer of either Frost Fabric or a sheet or some burlap on top water over the top and I also water underneath and that helps to keep it nice and moist I don't remove that sheet or Frost fabric until those zenyas have that second and third set of leaf and then I'm ready to start backing off so not only will this help keep the birds from getting it it'll help bunnies from nibbling on your zenyas so it's it kind of knocks out a few problems that we have with direct seating zenas okay bonus tip is pinching so once we've gotten to that third set of leaves with our zenas we've direct seated them a little bit late into nice warm soil we've kept them moist they've germinated they have their third set of leaves and we've removed that sheet or that Frost fabric now is pinching so pinching is optional there are different perspectives and viewpoints on pinching some people say it's absolutely not necessary other people like to pinch so I'll just tell you what I do and you can do whatever you'd like so personally I like to pinch I always like to illustrate the idea of pinching just because I find that people do well with a visual I don't have a visual right now because we haven't started our zenyas yet so instead I'll show you here so the idea is that by pinching we're creating multiple branches if we don't pinch panch will just get a single stem and then often zenyas will Branch more as they grow but if we pinch from down below as the seedling is growing and take off the little top part of the marem then we'll get branching from lower down and that's going to mean more flowers so basically the reason that we're pinching is toofold more flowers but also longer stems don't judge my drawing here's the ground told you don't judge it here's our Roots you know what Roots look like and then here we've got our stem first set of leaves second set of leaves third set of leaves okay you get the idea so once we have the third set we're going to come in and pinch and literally I'm just going to take my finger and thumb you could use the little scissors if you'd like I just usually like to use my nails and we're going to pinch right below that third set of leaves so we're going to take off this whole top set and I like to pinch nice and close to that next set of leaves and then what's going to happen is from there we're going to start getting branches that are going to be growing out like this from the base so instead of having one that's going to go up and then we'll cut our first flower and then we'll get branching by pinching when they're young we get branching earlier so that's all my tips for growing zenyas I'm going to give you a couple quick Harvest tips as well while you're here if you're growing zenyas for cutting there are a couple of things that are going to help you get good vase life out of zenyas now zenyas already have a pretty vase life but there are a couple things you should know one is that when we are cutting our zenyas we want to cut really nice and far down into the plant so this might mean that you're sacrificing some s shoots so we have branching going on if we've pinched our zenyas early on what this means is that if we're cutting deeply into the plant we might be sacrificing some side shoots that we're going to have to remove it's okay to do that because as we cut deeper into the plant what that's going to do is create more branching from lower down for example if we cut our first Zen this is our first Zena now say we have another little one right here and we say oh I don't want to lose this one so I'm going to cut this one here what we're going to get is more branching from here that are going to be short if we cut our first Zena all the way back down to the bottom so maybe here then we're going to get more long stems I hope that makes sense I usually like to say at least from my fingertip to my elbow is how long I like to cut my first zenyas you also want to give What's called the Wiggle test so when you're harvesting zenyas you want to grab about 6 in down the stem and wiggle the stem back and forth gently if the head of the bloom starts wobbling and flopping back and forth quite a bit that means that Zena is not ready to harvest if as you give it the wiggle test the stem stays nice and stiff it is ready to harvest so that means the zena is usually older so in general older zenas tend to have a better vase life than the ones that just opened so this is contrary to a lot of the flowers that we grow uh Cosmos roses or some that we really want to harvest almost before they've even opened versus the zenyas it's just something that is going to help them have the longest vase life otherwise you might see them bending wiggle test cut deep and the last thing is if you're doing it professionally or you're selling your zenyas you'll want to use what's called cvbn tabs I have found that zenyas just do best in fresh water that has changed out frequently so if you're concerned about putting chemicals into your water just change out the water frequently if you're doing this professionally and you're concerned about vase life and you're selling to florist you might want to look into cvbn tabs you just put a little tab it looks like a little aspirin you drop it right into your water bucket and that helps condition your flowers and that way they don't Brown as quickly as they do with say floral food because zenyas just don't they're they don't really like flow food because you've watched this song I'm also going to give you my favorite varieties so my favorite Zena varieties are actually not the primary colors if you are a bright like red yellow lover then the beny zenyas are very large they have lots of layers of petals they're pretty big I mean they can even get close to Dalia size if you are more into the peaches and kind of the dustier colors more antique colors I really love those ones then you can look into the Queenie series there's Queenie red lime is my all-time favorite Queenie Peach is beautiful I'm not a huge fan of the orange ones but a lot of people like those and then if you really want to get special you can look into flett's line of bread zenyas they are a little bit pricey uh about $20 for a packet of seeds but she has read them all herself but speaking of favorite varieties I have now gotten to the point where I am saving my own seed so if you want to save your own seed and it's very easy to save your own seed with Zena however one thing that you're going to want to know is that they will cross-pollinate so if you have different zenyas growing in the same area you're not not always going to get a Zena that is true to the parent if you know that you want to get a Zena that is true to whatever the seed is that you started with then you're going to want to cover them with a bag before they've been pollinated so right as they're starting to open if I know I'm growing for example Queen lime and I want to save some of those seeds then I'll put a little organza bag over the top of that bloom and cinch it tight before it has a chance to be cross-pollinated by bees or butterflies and that way I know that they will still be true to the parent otherwise I grow so many different zenas that they often will cross-pollinate and then I end up with something different but that is fun too so if you want to come up with your own Zena varieties try mixing and save your own seed and see what happens let's pop over to our Zena field from last season cuz it's not too late to save zenas if you still have some in your garden let's gos oh you don't have to get up girl just laying in the ice so I usually leave the zenyas up for the birds um because they do like to pick at this seeds and this means we have some good examples to look at if you're going to be saving your Zena seed you want to let them bloom early in the season and have time to fully develop their seeds otherwise if you wait until fall and the flowers are newer they often don't have time to develop seeds so let's see if we can find here's one for example so this was one that had just bloomed when fall hit and while you can see what looks like seeds on the inside I'll show you here in a second that these seeds are actually not able there's no embryo in these seeds oh maybe one here but not many so there's maybe a couple viable seeds here but let's like an older Bloom and I can tell that this one was older cuz there's lots of different layers in it and if I just pull this apart here you'll see how many viable seeds we have in here so here you can see all the different seeds this light part here this was is the petals it's kind of lighter these are petals that are now bleached out by the Sun not only are the Zeno seeds that are viable going to be darker like this one here this one this one and usually you'll find those viable ones here near the base this then you had a lot of layers of petals here and you can see it up toward the top it's really mostly just petals these aren't viable seeds although if you pull out these petals usually the viable seeds are attached usually those more viable seeds are going to be down at the base because those were the first first petals to emerge and so they've had more time to develop into seeds and so here you can see some of those ones that were down there toward the base and they have developed viable seed and they're plumper they're larger they have this little line down the center these ones are going to be viable versus if I pull some of the ones from the top look at the difference they're lighter in color they're thinner oops so the ones down toward the base are the viable ones those ones that were up at the top that are kind of thin and bendy they don't feel plump those ones are not viable so just a quick tutorial on Zena seed harvesting if you really want to get into Zena seed saving and growing your own varieties and breeding I'm going to attach a link to a book that you might be interested in here down below all right guys I hope you're feeling motivated to grow some more zenas this year start saving your own seed and to really enjoy seeing all the pollinators that come into the garden when you're growing zenyas not only are they actually pretty easy and low maintenance they attract a ton of beneficial insects and pollinators to the gardens let me know what varieties you're going to be growing this year i' love to hear it and if you have any questions pop them down below thanks everyone we'll see you next time at the farm

Channel: Regenerative Gardening with Blossom & Branch Farm

Views: 175,160

Keywords:

Id: YdQL2NxCBds

Length: 18min 41sec (1121 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2024