One of my annual success stories this summer was Zinnia ‘UpTown Grape’.
I started some ‘UpTown Grape’ plants from seed indoors over the winter. They had an excellent germination rate and behaved well under the lights. In late May I planted them in the garden. Three weeks later they started blooming and they didn’t stop until a hard freeze in mid-October.
‘UpTown Grape’ is a medium-sized zinnia that grows 18 to 24 inches tall with a flower color that’s a bit hard to describe and changes with light conditions—royal purple, wine-red, hot pink?
My plants grew upright and filled in nicely. The flowers are a little bigger than a Profusion or Zahara zinnia, but not so big as to attract ravenous Japanese Beetles. They never showed any signs of disease.
I’m always happy to find a robust, middle-of-the-border zinnia because few plants offer so much color over such a long growing season.
‘UpTown Grape’ looks great with many different garden colors. I even planted one clump next to some orange ‘Zahara Double Fire’ zinnias (above).
UpTown appears to be a series, so I hope other colors will ace their trials and be available for sale in the near future.