Ranging from $500 to $5,000 per kilogram, saffron, or the Red Gold as it is commonly referred to, takes a total of about 150,000 flowers to produce just one kilogram! Now you know why it would be a great idea to have its plant at home!
24.02.2024 - 16:32 / gardenerspath.com / Heather Buckner
How to Grow Eye-Popping Zinnia Flowers Zinnia spp.
With magnificently colorful blooms that put on a dazzling display all summer long, it is no wonder zinnias are such popular flowers.
What’s more, these show-stopping annuals are incredibly easy to grow.
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Continue on to learn how to grow and care for zinnias, and wow all of your neighbors – with barely any effort!
What Are Zinnias?Zinnia is a genus of flowering annuals in the aster family, Asteraceae, that can be grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 through 10.
They feature erect stems with bright solitary flower heads that produce large impressive blooms throughout the summer, attracting hummingbirds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.
While more than 20 known species exist in the wild, there are only a few species commonly available commercially, and these have been bred into hundreds of cultivars with flowers of many different forms.
Plants can range in size from six inches to four feet tall, with single, double, or semi-double petaled flowers of many different shapes and colors.
Z. elegans is the primary cultivated species. The wild plant has solitary flower heads of about two inches with black and yellow centers and purple petals.
It is native to Mexico, but its original form is no longer easy to find due to cultivars that have escaped into the wild, which have interbred and naturalized in many places around the world.
Z. angustifolia, also known as the narrow leafed zinnia, features smaller single flowers of white, yellow, and orange.
Z. haageana, sometimes referred to as Mexican zinnia, has smaller single or double petaled flowers in yellows,
Ranging from $500 to $5,000 per kilogram, saffron, or the Red Gold as it is commonly referred to, takes a total of about 150,000 flowers to produce just one kilogram! Now you know why it would be a great idea to have its plant at home!
Sowing a seed directly into the ground, nurturing it, and reaping the rewards is one of the easiest gardening activities you can do—yet many gardeners don’t. There are many reasons to direct sow. Often, you’ll have earlier harvests because the seeds will germinate when it’s the perfect time to grow, and stronger seedlings because transplant shock isn’t an issue. Planting seeds in general (instead of buying transplants) gives you more varietal options, and you can also save a lot of money (1 packet of 30 to 150 seeds often costs less than a 6-pack of plants). And then there is the personal satisfaction factor. Ask any child who has planted a sunflower seed how they feel when that flower towers over their head, and you’ll understand what I mean.
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