Saturday, February 9, 2013

Zinnias - The Perfect Beginner Plant... for some Beginners

Actually the chrysanthemums were not the flowers I intended to put outside my door for Chinese New Year. My initial plan was for the two pretty pots of zinnias that I bought from the nursery. 

However 3-4 days into living at the L-shape, they started to look AWFUL. Dried and miserable. I watered thinking that they were thirsty. Nope, didn't work either. 

I started deadheading the blooms, especially when one of them had like white mold growing on it. I also found a cotton-seed-looking seed at my door. Later Mr Bear would tell me that this was actually the seed of the zinnia plant.  

But that was later, after I had found out what I did wrongly. In the meantime, desperate I turned to the Internet, and posted the fotos on gardening web and reddit. In the meantime, usual tips on zinnias said that they were a really easy annual to plant, sun-loving and somewhat drought-resistant.

Finally someone pointed out that these plants were actually adult bloomers and that the plants were overcrowded and the roots were not drawing enough nutrients. By then, 6 of the 8 zinnias were dead. So I deadheaded all the blooms and replanted three of them that still had some new leaves. One more died later. Sigh.
Since then, the other two recovered. The yellow was going strong in the first place. It was the only bloom in its pot to still have new leaves, while it was almost gone case for the peach zinnia (it didn't have any flowers by then so I couldn't remember what was the color of its flowers). Took a really long time, but here it is, somewhat recovered. Ok, it wasn't my effort. It really was going to die at one point, so I moved it to the wall, where the incessant rain seems to have perked it up.
This is a very painful lesson learnt. I felt really bad for killing the zinnias with my lack of knowledge. 

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Because Gardening makes me wanna Dance! Thanx for visiting!!!

Because Gardening makes me wanna Dance! Thanx for visiting!!!