The Language of Flowers has varying meanings for this flower in accordance with the colour chosen; in white they mean ‘goodness’, in scarlet – ‘constancy’, in yellow – ‘daily remembrance’, magenta means ‘lasting affection’ and the mixed variety means ‘thinking (or in memory) of an absent friend’.
Native to Mexico, Zinnia are brilliant, butterfly and humming bird attracting flowers that come in a variety of appearances and colours- the bloom can be a single circle of petals or can have multiple layers making it dome shaped.
Zinnia bloom in brilliant hues of red, orange, yellow, purple or white, sometimes each bloom sharing more than one colour. The most popular species are Zinnia elegans fondly dubbed ‘youth-and-old-age’.
Zinnia, named after a professor of botany named Johann Gottfried Zinn, have a genus of 20 species and are from the family Asteracea.
This plant has sessile (stalk-less) leaves that are pale to mid green in colour and can be linear to ovate or lance shaped with a rough texture.
Being a summer plant, Zinnia bear well in full sun and well drained soil and reseed themselves each year making them easy to grow.