Trial: Annual

Year Trialed: 2008

Good Qualities

Fantastic color (12), best pink; Very productive (3); Very good germination; Looks old, over the hill to me, because the petals are graduated in color, still held up okay, customers bought it, maybe the grower just needs to get used to it; Easy to grow, bloomed for most of the growing season; I like the more subtle color of this pink versus the ‘Oklahoma Pink’; Good flower size (3-4 inches); With repeated cutting we get very strong, long stems that hold in the vase for a long period of time; Robust zinnia with good size bloom and stem length; Giant habit could be re-established with cutting back stems that were in excess, large, beautiful blooms with many layers of petals; People and hummingbirds like zinnias; Mixed with ‘Giant Lime Green’ it was a winner! Nice tall plants; Flower size, just too late (my fault); Tall, attractive, with large double flowers; Size of flower, vigor of plant.

Problems

None (3); All had to be sprayed for fungus, due to our very rainy summer; We had the usual problem of short holding for all zinnias, problems with Japanese beetles and leaf spot; Considerable variation in color from a dark carmine to pink – all are popular colors but shades of carmine might be a more descriptive name; Weak neck and melt down at times; Powdery mildew and some foliar disease always occurs in our zinnias by mid to late summer, corn rootworm beetle is a MAJOR problem from about mid-July to frost- worse in the zinnias, for us, than the Japanese beetles, we are aggressively experimenting for control measures; Poor germination, petal color in our humid climate inconsistent; After first cut, later blooms didn’t have as many petal layers; Mildew; A lot of single flowers; Standard zinnia problems, weak neck, barely acceptable vase life, not enough of the nice big really double flowers; Slugs devoured that seedlings as they emerged so I replanted twice, they have really just started to produce in the last few weeks; Dead – High EC irrigation water.

Similar Cultivars

I didn’t find these that different from the other giants I’ve grown; Uproar Rose.

Comments

I like all the Benary’s Giant series; Despite the problems I can’t imagine not growing all the beautiful, colorful Benary zinnias, I only stay away from the white which looks old too quickly, next season I’m going to try to stay away from floral preservative and only use water on my zinnias; Most of the Benary zinnias are very fine cut flowers – Carmine rose is one of the best!; Relatively tolerant of Japanese beetles. Harvested between 7/10-8/8 (transplanted to the field April 22); Harvested between 7/16-8/18 (transplanted to the field May 22); Entire zinnia crop was planted late while I was out of town, this year, I pinched in August and cut back severely in late August which did increase stem length, I could have sold all of the large flowered ones if I’d been able to keep the mildew preventative spray; This was a beauty, very productive, cheerful color – I will grow it again!; I will use transplants in the future for all zinnias and watch for slugs; Will always grow ‘Carmine Rose’.

Postharvest

Plain water (2); Remove about 1/3 of leaves (lower ones); We use a light dosing of Floralife in warm water and do not place zinnias in the cooler, our customers enthusiastically get a week to almost 2 weeks of vase life!; Surface sterilize stems in a 10% bleach solution, we don’t use floral preservative with zinnias, we avoid keeping them in the cooler.

Trial Data

Supplier

Benary Seed
1444 Larson St.
Sycamore, IL 60178