Zinnia ‘Profusion’ series

Zinnia 'Profusion Fire'

* Common name: Zinnia ‘Profusion’

* Botanical name: Zinnia ‘Profusion’

* What it is: A break-through, bright and showy series of hybrid annuals with quarter-size flowers that nearly cover the bushy plants all season long. Will wake you up faster than Folger’s. Even better: It’s one of the best and most mildew-resistant zinnias ever. ‘Orange’ and ‘Fire’ are two of the best performers of the series. ‘Cherry’ fades out.

* Size: About 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

* Where to use: Looks best massed in a bed, such as lining a front foundation or adding bright color to a border bed. Individual plants are big enough and bright enough to hold their own even when spotted singly throughout a bed. Flowers best in full sun.

* Care: Plant now in rich, loose soil improved with generous amounts of compost. Keep damp for the first few weeks, then zinnias become drought-hardy. Fertilizing every few weeks with a high-phosphorus flower fertilizer helps but isn’t critical if you’ve enriched the soil with compost. Snipping off spent flowers also helps, but new flowers help hide the browning ones. Yank when fall frost kills the foliage. These sometimes reseed.

* Great partner: Backdrop with ornamental grasses or dark-leafed millet, with tall yellow perennials such as black-eyed susans or heliopsis, or with burgundy or yellow annual sunflowers. Especially stunning: ‘Profusion Orange’ interplanted with the gold-leafed ornamental sweet potato vine ‘Marguerite.’