Lessons from the Missouri Botanical Garden or
	What's the Best Way to Grow Zinnias?

I recently talked to one of the head gardeners at the Missouri Botanical Garden - one of the top gardens in the world. I asked her how they handled the planting of Zinnias. My personal experience has been that most large Zinnias don't like to be transplanted and do poorly. On the other hand, when I plant Zinnia seeds outside in the soil, around June 1st or later, they do fantastic.

The gardener told me that they started their seed indoors about six weeks ahead of time and the large Zinnias may be ten inches tall by the time they are planted. I asked if they used the common peat containers which so many stores sell and she said no. She told me that they grow the seedlings in plastic, 32/tray, containers - the same kind that I recommend.

I then asked her about transplanting shock and she said that they don't have that problem. She said, that she thought it might be a myth.

It certainly has not been a myth in my experience, so I wondered what the difference might be.

I then talked to another friend who volunteers at the Garden and he indicated that the soil there and the conditions were ideal.

Before they put in new plants, they add compost, peat, and other amendments to make the soil perfect and then they mix it all up with a tiller. When the volunteers go in to plant the seedlings they just push back the fluffy soil and insert the new plant. Their soil is more like a bag of Miracle Gro Potting Mix. My soil is closer to that of heavy potters clay with the addition of tree roots and rocks - not a good start for any plant.

Their Zinnia seedlings start life swaddled like a baby in a fluffy blanket. My seedlings start life wrapped in heavy barb wire - no wonder they complain.

It appears that either solution might work. It just depends on your soil and how much preparation you're willing to do every spring.

Since there aren't very many butterflies around in early summer, it's not important for me to have the earliest Zinnias possible, so I'll stay with planting my Zinnia seeds directly in the garden.

I do however have one variety that I may experiment with.