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Scientific: Zinnia elegans
Common: zinnia
Family: Asteraceae
Origin: Mexico

Pronounciation: Zi-KNEE-a EL-e-gans

Hardiness zones
Sunset
All zones as annual
USDA All zones as annual

Landscape Use: In Phoenix, zinnia are a warm-season accent bedding plant. They are a great summer annual plant for youth and educational gardens because they are SO easy to grow, dependable and showy.

Form & Character: Upright, sometimes stiff and sometimes not, but always tender, bright, festive and cheerful.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, herbaceous annual, moderately upright, the mature height of which depends on cultivated variety ranging from a short, dwarf 12 inches to a tall 4 feet.

Foliage/Texture: Ovate, medium green, entire, slightly pubescent, mostly sessile; medium fine texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers bright white to red, perfect ray flowers, single and double born terminally on stems; fruit inconspicuous.

Seasonal Color: Usually warm colors from May to September.

Temperature: Mostly tolerant of desert summer heat, though might become heat stressed in full sun during the hottest portions of the desert summer, avoid reflected sunlight from western exposures.....in fact it's probably best to avoid growing zinnias in garden spots with strong west exposures altogether.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Tolerant, but soil MUST be well-drained with moderate to high amounts of organic matter.

Watering: In Phoenix, provide zinnia with copious and frequent amounts of water to thrive during the long, hot summer.

Pruning: Remove spent flowers to encourage more blooms.

Propagation: Seed, really easy - this is a beginner's plant, a great choice for children's school gardens.

Disease and Pests: Relatively pest free.

Additional comments: Zinnias are a cheerful, very easy to grow, summer bedding plant for moist protected gardens in the desert southwest. They are not drought tolerant.

There are several other Zinnia species and hybrids of species with many named cultivars such as the delightful Zinnia hybrida 'Orange Profusion'.