Let’s talk Zinnias. Who loves them? Who hates them? Who has a love/hate relationship with them like I do? I love the range of colors and styles (the pin cushion scabiosa variety is one of my favorites). I also appreciate their cheerful blooms and the tiny inner flowers that form around the center. Insert all the heart emojis here!!

So why do I hate them? Hate is an exaggeration – rather, they can be highly frustrating for cut flower growing. Like Goldilocks, they need conditions to be just right. The flower might look like it’s ready to be picked, but if you wiggle the stem about 5″ below the flower and the bloom is floppy, cutting it will only result in a limp and eventual dead flower. For the flower to be ready to cut, the stem should feel stiff. My issue is when the stem feels a little wobbly and a little erect. This is especially true of the bigger blooms, like Benary’s Giants. I’ve cut many a Zinnia – so excited to place it in a bouquet – only to discover a little later that the stem bends and the bloom dies.

Zinnias are also considered ‘dirty’ flowers. Their stems muck up the water and make it difficult for the flowers to stay hydrated. A drop of bleach to the vase water helps combat the bacteria build up. Zinnias can also succumb to a bacterial meltdown. A beautiful bloom turns to mush within 24 hours of harvest. And yet despite all these hurdles, I’ve grown Zinnias every year of my flower farming adventure. They’re fairly quick to mature – about two months from direct sowing. They love the heat and therefore do not cause me to stress out when the temps are in the 90s. They are a prolific cut and come again flower – the more you cut, the more blooms they pump out. And besides being a great filler flower in bouquets, the larger blooms can also be used as the focal flower.

Zinnias, with all their harvesting and post-harvest finickiness, are still worth growing. When all conditions are favorable, they can be a hard-working and happy addition to your cutting garden.

Holly Robertson owns and operates Five R Farm in rural Reinbeck along with her husband Ben. In addition to growing flowers and vegetables for the local farmers market and seasonal CSA, the Robertsons also own and operate Reinbeck’s only bar-meets-record store, The Dig Inn. The Robertsons’ fifth-generation family farm is home to three dogs (Frank, Otto and Snoopy), two cats (Scooter and Marnie), two Nubian goats (Hank and Marge), and a colony of honey bees. Check out the garden/farm life on Instagram @five.r.farm and Facebook @fiverfarmer