I’m always game to try a new zinnia cultivar, so this year I sprouted ‘Candy Mix’ from seed. I don’t like to grow mixes because I usually lose the color lottery and end up with lots of creams and whites. I planted about a dozen plants and while ‘Candy Mix’ did not send up any cream or white blooms, there were certainly a lot of of what I can only describe as flesh-colored blooms:
There were a handful of plants that took the color saturation a tiny step further like this coral, but that’s as crazy as it got:
I knew the flowers would be much smaller (about 2″ across) than the regular tall zinnias I grow (like Park’s Picks or Benary’s), but I didn’t realize how much their diminutive size would impact their overall impact in the garden. They were very hard to see from a distance.
On the plus side ‘Candy Mix’ bloomed all summer and the flowers were too small for the Japanese Beetles to bother with. But their lack of size resulted in a lack of “wow.” I don’t have a lot of room in my city lot so the flowers I grow have to pack a punch. ‘Candy Mix’ just wasn’t for me.