Zinnia haageana Jazzy Mix - seeds

The Zinnia haageana 'Jazzy Mix' offers small flowers like fireworks, in different highly contrasting bicolour duos. Semi-doubles or doubles, they come in earthy tones, finished with tips of opposing colours. There are burgundy red, red, yellow and orange with cream, red, or yellow tips. It blooms continuously from summer to autumn in flower beds and borders and brightens up floral arrangements. This annual is easy to grow in the garden. It can be planted in a mix with other equally undemanding flowering plants.

The approximately 20 species that make up the Zinnia genus are native to dry meadows in an area stretching from southwestern North America to South America, but primarily Mexico. Zinnia haageana (Synonym Z. mexicana or Z. angustifolia) is an annual plant that thrives in heat and sunlight, belonging to the aster family, native to Mexico, with small but abundant flowers.

The 'Jazzy Mix' variety forms a small, well-branched clump, averaging 60 cm (24in) high and 40 cm (16in) wide. The hairy, medium-green leaves are narrow and sheathing at the base. The slender stems are often tinged with red near the ground. Nectar-rich flowers appear from July to mid-October in the axils of the leaves, they are semi-double heads, 4 cm (2in) wide, composed of a double row of ligulate petals surrounding a centre of fertile florets which darken as they mature.

Zinnias are appreciated for their ease of cultivation, and rightly so. They also show great resilience in conditions where other plants struggle. Zinnias thrive in sunlight and withstand high temperatures well, as long as they are watered a little. They do best in neutral, rich, well-drained soil, but can tolerate ordinary garden soil. Plant them in ornamental gardens, borders, and flower beds, and the vegetable garden. Combine zinnias with informal, naturally charming plants such as sages, perennial geraniums, coreopsis. The spikes of ornamental grasses mixing with zinnia flowers make a beautiful display. They can also be sown in pots to decorate the terrace in summer. It is a nectar-rich plant that will delight bees and butterflies.