Windfall Zinnia Seeds are Breeders Seeds
When you grow Windfall Zinnias, you are growing the products of a breeding program in progress!
Our varieties are relatively new and not yet stable. This means that their seeds do not yet produce predictable results. The flowers grown from our seeds will not be monotone, uniform and identical to each other. Instead, expect to grow a beautiful range of unique and interesting zinnias, with lots of stunning surprises - some of which may have never been seen before!
It can take seven or more years to produce a stable variety (meaning that the flowers grown from seeds will all be the same, and resemble the parent plants). While we work towards stabilizing our new varieties, we are offering blends of seeds from our works-in-progress.
The sales of these seeds is what supports the continuation of our breeding program!
Where Your Seeds Come From
There is a lot that goes into the breeding process, but in a nutshell: each summer, for each variety that I am working on, I make controlled-cross seeds by isolating hundreds of flowers (using organza bags, bee-netting tunnels, and/or distance) and pollinating them by hand (or using flies in the tunnels). The following summer I plant thousands of our controlled-cross seeds in blocks in a mixed field setting. I then evaluate the plants, removing any that don't fit my goals. I select the best flowers to isolate and again produce thousands of controlled-cross seeds for the following year. In this way I make progress towards stabilizing my varieties each year.
The same plants that I use to produce controlled crosses also make many seeds from flowers that are freely pollinated by our local pollinators. It is the seeds from these freely pollinated flowers from our breeding stock plants that I am currently offering for sale.
Varieties in Progress
Here are some breeders notes on a few of the varieties that I am currently focusing my breeding efforts on.
Freely pollinated seeds from these plants and the descendants from these plants are in the seed blends in the shop. *Please read the information above to make sure you understand what it means to buy in-progress breeding seeds.*
Windfall Peach
This is our most stable variety. "Windfall Peach" produces many fully double, 1.5 to 2 inch, globe shaped flowers in a range of primarily peach tones with subtle shades of salmon, pink, and orange. This variety was grown in an isolation tunnel and pollinated by flies in 2024. Very few off-types were seen in 2024, but a couple of unique surprises did appear!
Windfall Lilac
Windfall Lilac was the result of a hand pollinated cross made indoors over the winter of 2022/2023. Seeds from the cross were grown in the field in the summer of 2023. Every seed produced plants with lilac coloured flowers! This uniformity is common in the F1 (first) generation of a cross. Due to complicated genetic processes, the F2 generation is always expected to be more variable than the F1. As expected, the hand crossed F2 seeds that were grown out in 2024 were more variable, but produced a number of plants with lilac blooms, and these were again isolated and hand crossed to create a third generation (F3). This variety is not available in 2024 (although some crosses made with it are in the "Hope" blend). We will continue to work on stabilizing this variety in the years to come!
Windfall Apricot
Windfall Apricot was the result of a few different hand pollinated crosses made over the winter of 2022/2023, that produced similar results. The crosses were grown out in the field in the summer of 2023 (F1). The second generation (grown in 2024) from this variety showed deeper colours than the originals, but we are confident that the traits for the original Windfall Apricot will return in future generations.
Muted Shades
A variety of breeding lines are coming together to create a mix of large, fluffy, romantic blooms in muted shades.
Big Saturated Colours
I am selecting flowers from many of my different breeding lines, to create a mix of flowers that are large, cheerful, bright and colorful but not blindingly bright and garish.
Colourful Globe Shapes
These globe shaped flowers in many happy shades are descendants of crosses with Windfall Lilac.
Pale Pinks and Creams
In 2023 I hand crossed several ivory and white flowers with a selection of pink and tan coloured flowers (including Windfall Lilac!), and the result was a beautiful array of flowers with recombined traits and a range of new shades of pink and cream. The best of this bunch were selected and hand pollinated to create the next generation for 2025.
Purple
This variety was a new surprise in 2024. It came from a hand pollinated cross between white and pale pink flowers. These flowers are an example of the unpredictability of flower breeding. Sometimes crossing a white and a pale pink flower makes a paler pink flower (which was my goal) and sometimes it results in a complete surprise!
