Zinnia ‘Zany Rose Picotee’ = flower of the year!

Brilliantly coloured zinnia ‘Zany Rose Picotee’ is the winner of the RHS People’s Choice award for the best new variety of the year.

The flower was among 108 finalists selected from trials held at the two hectare (five acre) trials fields at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey. Visitors to the garden voted for their favourite plant across the whole trials fields, as well as their favourite Zinnia and Calibrachoa.

The candy-coloured zinnia was praised for its bicoloured petals, fading from deep purple in the centre to pale pink and white at the tips. The winner was particularly significant since 2017 was named the Year of the Zinnia by Fleuroselect, with 140 varieties on trial.

RHS trials manager Sabatino Urzo said it combines bold blooms with continued early autumn flowering, making it a sure favourite with customers.

‘The People’s Choice Award is a great way of engaging the public with the RHS trials programme and points to popular trends and fashions in planting,’ he said. ‘This year we can see plants with a reddish hue have scored highly with the public, versus more subtle yellows and whites which feature lower in the rankings.’

Other winners were Zinnia ‘Giant Deep Red’ and ‘Molotov Mixed’, which were the public’s favourites in the Zinnia class; and of the Calibrachoas those with the most votes were ‘MiniFamous Double PinkTastic’ for hanging baskets, and ‘Cabaret Bright Red’ for containers.

Zinnias are fabulous for brilliantly colourful summer displays, flowering steadily through autumn till the first frosts. They’re a must for cutting gardens, with long, sturdy stalks that last well in a vase. You’ll find dozens of varieties available in season here at the garden centre in Pickering along with Calibrachoa and other summer bedding; or if you can’t wait, browse through our seed racks now for great selections to raise from seed in early spring.