Zinnia

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Not a honey source

Which bees, and why

Single-flowered zinnias have an accessible open centre with exposed florets. Fully double cultivars have had the florets replaced by sterile ray petals and offer little or nothing, which is the clearest example in a bedding scheme of why cultivar choice matters.

An open composite centre in single forms, and effectively no access at all in fully double ones.

Worth knowing

A good late nectar and pollen source in single-flowered forms, and close to worthless in fully double ones.

Flowering

In flower

July to October (northern hemisphere)

A long summer to autumn season from a spring sowing, continuing until frost.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun on rich free-draining soil with warmth. It dislikes cold wet conditions and damps off readily in a cool spring.

Size

30-90 cm tall depending on cultivar.

Native range

Mexico and the southwestern United States, on dry grassland and scrub.

Suits

Small gardens, Containers and window boxes, Large gardens

• Choose single or semi-double cultivars — the fully double bedding types are close to useless for bees.
• Sow late, when the soil is warm; early sowings damp off.
• Deadhead regularly and it flowers until the first frost.

What it looks like

Upright annuals with rough opposite leaves and solitary daisy flowers in intense reds, oranges, pinks and yellows, single, semi-double or fully double depending on cultivar.