PRAIRIE ZINNIA

Zinnia grandiflora

Sunflower Family (Compositae)

This tough little plant is quite different from its annual tropical cousins, but it has the same bright, long-lasting flowering heads. It is a plant of the southwestern Great Plains, entering our area in the southern part of the Colorado Plateau. It grows on dry, rocky, open slopes and is quite drought-hardy. Golden flower heads cover the plant from midsummer through fall. The rays become papery and straw-colored with age. This plant likes good drainage and full sun, and it does not compete well with grasses or other tall plants. It is very suitable for the rock garden or low perennial border. It combines well with other low plants like silver buckwheat and fiesta buckwheat, and picks up the flowering when spring-blooming plants like fringed puccoon and dwarf goldenbush have finished their show.