A Note About Fiora Lab Zinnia Seed
Many readers of The Pastel Zinnia Breeding Project have contacted me to ask whether my seeds are available for purchase. I appreciate the interest, and I hope this explanation clarifies what I am—and am not—trying to create.
Fiora Lab is not a commercial seed company, and I am not developing a stabilized cultivar in which every plant produces the same flower. Excellent pastel zinnias are now available from many reputable sources. Gardeners can already purchase beautiful varieties such as Benary’s Giant and Oklahoma Salmon, along with an increasing number of specialty pastel selections. I do not see a reason to reproduce what established breeders are already doing well.
My goal is different.
I am building a broad, open-pollinated population that performs well in the hot, humid conditions of eastern North Carolina. By August, many zinnias begin to decline under heat, rain, and powdery mildew pressure. I select the plants that remain vigorous, produce strong stems without staking, continue flowering, and hold up better than the rest of the population.
The Traits I Value Most
- Strong, upright stems that do not require staking
- Fully double flowers
- Useful vase life
- Continued production through summer
- Slower decline under powdery mildew and other local disease pressure
- Tall, Benary-like plant habit when appropriate
- Attractive pastel or antique coloring
I do not require the flowers to be identical. Cream, blush, peach, champagne, muted rose, lavender, and unusual blended colors are all welcome. The population will remain intentionally variable because I am selecting for plant health and garden performance rather than commercial uniformity.
The Flower Types I Continue to Save
Dahlia-Type Pastels
These are my primary selections: generally 4- to 6-inch blooms with broad, rounded petals, full form, and strong stems. I prefer these over narrow-petaled cactus forms.
Antique Pompons
These flowers are smaller, but the plants are often more prolific and extremely useful in arrangements.
Scabiosa-Type Flowers
I continue to preserve some of these, although they are not currently my favorite arranging flower. When making bouquets, I often find myself reaching for other forms first.
Ombré and Unusual-Color Selections
I also maintain a separate group of unusual flowers with layered, fading, edged, or shifting colors. Some are difficult to classify, but they are too beautiful and interesting to discard.
Why the Seeds Will Remain Variable
I do not hand-pollinate these plants. I am a hobby gardener, and I enjoy allowing bees and other pollinators to move pollen naturally through the selected population.
I save seed from the best maternal plants, remove bright or structurally poor plants when possible, and continue selecting in the next generation. The mother plant is known, but the pollen parent usually is not.
For that reason, these seeds should not be understood as finished named cultivars. They are early-generation, open-pollinated breeding populations. Seedlings may vary in color, size, form, height, doubleness, and performance. That variation is part of the project.
Seeds Included with Books Purchased from Fiora Lab
Books purchased directly through this website are signed copies. When seed is available, the order will also include seed from one of the Fiora Lab populations described above.
The particular population may vary according to the season and available harvest. It may be a dahlia-type pastel, antique pompon, scabiosa-type, or unusual ombré selection. Because these are open-pollinated breeding populations, no specific flower color or form is guaranteed.
The seed is offered as an invitation to participate in the process described in the book: grow the plants, observe what appears, save from the mothers that perform best in your garden, and continue shaping the population for your own conditions.
I hope this answers the question of whether Fiora Lab seeds are available. They are not commercial, standardized seed lines. They are living, changing garden populations selected for strength, beauty, and resilience—and shared with readers who understand that the next generation may still contain surprises.