How to Start Zinnia Seeds

Zinnia flowers add color to an annual garden with their large, multi-petaled blooms that bloom from midsummer until the first fall frost. Zinnia are available in every color but true blue, with a variety of petal forms and flower shapes. To provide the earliest blooms possible, start zinnia seeds indoors four weeks before the last expected spring frost. The flowers readily grow indoors and you can transplant them to the garden with little fuss.

Peat pots
Potting soil
Seeds
Plastic wrap
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Fill 3-inch-diameter peat pots with a sterile potting mix. Peat pots are biodegradable, allowing you to plant the entire pot into the garden bed so that the zinnia roots aren't disturbed.
- 2
  Sow two zinnia seeds on the soil surface in each pot. Cover the seeds with a 1/8-inch layer of potting soil.
- 3
  Water the pots until the moisture begins dripping from the bottom. Cover the pots with plastic wrap, which retains soil moisture during germination. Place the pots in a warm, sunny window to germinate.
- 4
  Remove the plastic once seedlings emerge, usually within seven days of planting. Water the pots when the soil surface begins to feel dry.
- 5
  Thin the seedlings to one per pot once they grow in their second set of leaves. Cut the smaller, weaker seedling off at soil level, using a pair of small scissors, leaving the larger seedling to grow on in the pot.

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