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Project Noah Nature School
Zinnia elegans
Our potted Zinnia is starting to bloom white, yellow, and pink flowers with more buds starting to form. We noticed some parts of the leaves were missing.
The zinnias are in a pot next to the garden on the school campus.
This is the Glenn O Swings 3rd Grade Group ( The Purple Bees): They will be studying this potted Zinna plant and had the following questions: 1. Do Zinnias survive over the winter? 2. Will birds visit the Zinnias? 3. Do butterflies or bees visit the flowers more? 4. What insects eat zinnia leaves?
How many different colors of zinnias did you get this year? What do their seeds look like? How could you figure out whether its butterflies or bees that visit zinnias more? What would we have to do?
Do Zinnias survive over the winter? Zinnas are annuals and do not survive the winter, but leaving a few old flowers will then drop seeds that will sprout the next spring.
2. Will birds visit the Zinnias? Birds will eat at zinnias for their seeds but that is after the flower has been pollinated.
3. Do butterflies or bees visit the flowers more? While we don’t have the data on which pollinator makes the most visits to zinnias, we do know that the flat landing pad of the flower makes it easier for butterflies to visit the flower to drink nectar. Bees also love to visit the flower for the nectar and easy access to pollen.
4. What insects eat zinnia leaves? Zinnias have few insect pests, but aphids, spider mites, and whiteflies may damage plants, especially during hot, dry weather. Lady bugs are natural predators of mites and aphids and other insects. Having these insects may attract ladybugs. (Aphids and spider mites can be hosed off the plants with a strong stream of water. Since spider mites thrive in hot, dry weather, reducing drought stress with supplemental irrigation will help prevent an infestation. )
Hello Syl Ross the Nature Boss, and Welcome to the Project Noah community! We hope you like the website as much as we do. There are many aspects to the site and community. The best way to get started is to read the FAQs at http://www.projectnoah.org/faq where you can find all the tips, advice and "rules" of Project Noah. You, like the rest of the community, will be able to suggest IDs for species that you know (but that have not been identified), and make useful or encouraging comments on other users' spottings (and they on yours). There are also "missions" you can join and add spottings to. See http://www.projectnoah.org/missions Note that most missions are "local.” Be sure not to add a spotting to a mission that was outside of mission boundaries or theme. Each mission has a map you may consult showing its range. We also maintain a blog archive http://blog.projectnoah.org/ where we have posted previous articles from specialists from different geographical areas and categories of spottings, as well as wildlife "adventures.” So enjoy yourself, share, communicate, learn. See you around!
Spotted on Jul 7, 2021
Submitted on Jul 9, 2021
