Too Early?

[HotPepperQueen]

I am on the zone 3/4 border in central MN. I just started all my super hot peppers and specialty peppers. I will be starting my tomatoes soon, too. I wouldn't start any melons or squash inside. I plant mine directly outside in the dirt and they catch up to the ones I have started inside in about a week. I only start peppers and tomatoes indoors and I buy cabbage and broccoli starts. So glad to see another Minnesotan on here

 

[bobbi-j]

My zinnias and marigolds are direct seeded in the garden when it warms up, maybe late April. I always have little spaces in rows that don't quite get filled, so I sprinkle some seeds there and transplant them when I'm ready. I use marigolds inside the rows to separate plantings. For example, I normally plant four half-rows of corn, wait 10 days to 2 weeks and plant the rest of those rows. I'll put marigolds in between. Or I grow cucumbers and pole beans on my garden fence. I'll put marigolds in that break between them.

Zinnias go at the ends of some rows. I almost always plant some zinnias at the ends of my corn rows, bush beans, squash and maybe some other things.

I don't do this for any companion planting benefits, protection against pests, or to attract pollinators. I do it because I think they are pretty.

Zinnias are very pretty, and seem fairly easy to grow. Here they attract Monarchs an other butterflies.

 

[digitS']

I can do that too, RidgeRunner. Although, zinnias in the veggies would have to be alphabetized . . .

I haven't tried the larger zinnias varieties direct-seeded. I'm fairly sure that they would bloom just before frost, in fact, the smaller zinnias do that.
My zinnia failure cost me big bucks!

Now, the important question for this topic: is it pronounced zĭn′ē-ə or zēn′ē-ə or zēn-ya'?

Steve
sorry, bobbi-j. just shoot me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Steve, my growing season may be a bit different than yours. Maybe.

I was born and raised in the south and spent most of my working life down south. Many very short words may have three or more syllables, but in this case I only use two.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Zinnia as a 2 syllable word? Never heard it said like that, pretty sure that's the wrong way

 

[bobbi-j]

There's more than one way to pronounce zinnia?? For the record, it's the first pronunciation for us.

Steve, do you sell them?

 

[baymule]

ZEEN-ya drawled real slow

 

[digitS']

That's the way my Missouri-born grandmother said it, Bay'. I learned many of the garden flower names from her.

It took me awhile to remember back several decades when I started working with, and yes, selling flowers. I never talked to the Texas-born grandmother about zinnias. My fault there.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

zeen-ya.

 

[Smart Red]

ZIN-ee-ah

But then, I live in the Midwest where national news anchors were once sent to broadcasting schools to learn "English".

I've always wondered how ya'll learn to spell when the words come out so differently and certainly not phonetically. I rather thought New Englanders and Southerners must be extra smart to be able to say a word one way and spell it another. Spelling in the Midwest was more than I could handle; I was tied to my dictionary as a student.