This year I tried Zinnia ‘Swirls’ for the first time. I’m always on the lookout for mid-size zinnias.
The mix is supposed to be shades of pink, red, purple, orange, yellow, green and cream. Most of the flowers that bloomed in my flowerbeds this summer were light or dark-pink.
A lack of color variation aside, the plants did stay true to their promised size of 20 inches, so they were great for the middle of my flowerbeds.
In late September we were in a drought and I decided it was no longer worth the money to try to keep my annuals alive, so I stopped watering them (with the exception of a few blooming plants adored by bees and hummingbirds).
‘Swirls’ continued to bloom without water, and I still have a few flowers blooming out there in November after several light frosts.
I plan to grow this zinnia again next summer. Maybe I’ll have better luck getting different colors on my second try!