Easy to grow and reliable, zinnias are bright butterfly magnets
that have a long history as favorite flowers of American home
gardeners. Indeed, we tend to take these popular flowers for
granted, perhaps thinking them too ordinary, stiff or garish or
simply not very exciting. I think that once more gardeners are
familiar with the diversity of zinnia flower forms, petal
shapes, plant heights and the allure of the rainbow color
palette now available, they will share my new excitement about
these familiar garden companions. Zinnias are natives of the New
World and were probably cultivated in Aztec gardens along with
dahlias, sunflowers and morning glories before the Spanish
conquest of Mexico. They were named 1763 by Linnaeus in honor of
Johann Zinn, a German professor of botany and medicine. The
first double forms were introduced in France in 1856. Zinnias
became popular in the US in the late 19th and early 20th century
and many familiar forms were bred here including the first
cactus flowering and striped vari