A Seasonal Report for the Zinnia Fields at the Land School: Year 2
We have been growing and saving our own zinnia seeds for several years now at the Land School in Glenwood City, Wisconsin. A program of Lake Country Montessori School in Minneapolis, the Land School is a teaching farm with llamas, sheep, large scale gardens, and 160 acres of woods, fields and prairie. The Land School engages students from pre-k to junior high in day programs through extended farmstays. In recent years, the farm program has expanded to include seed stewardship, of both native and cultivated seeds. This has become a regenerative source of climate adapted seeds for the Land School and the broader school community, through the Lake Country School Seed Library. Zinnia seeds are a much-loved addition and an easy favorite!
Beginning in the fall, students in grades 4-8 visit the Land School for extended stays. This provides a perfect opportunity to engage students in seed collection, as both annual and perennial plants reach the end of the summer growing season. Zinnia’s provide a fantastic cutting flower, ideal for bouquets that students assemble for the Lake Country School Farmers Market. They are also an easy plant to save seed from. In the fall, students help to identify and collect flower heads with mature seeds to dry and process for seed collection.
As part of the Zinnia Collective, in partnership with the Como Community Seed Library, the Land School has been experimenting with zinnia breeding and engaging students in the learning process. This began in the spring of 2022 with a large mixed planting of zinnias with a variety of different traits (i.e. height, color, and texture). The flowers were allowed to cross naturally in the field with the help of pollinators and hand pollination. Students collected seeds in the fall and germinated them in the greenhouse the following spring for a second year grow-out.
During the second year of the zinnia breeding experiment, the Green Envy zinnia was added as a ‘blank canvas’ with its pale green flowers. Throughout the blooming season, Land School staff, students and Zinnia Collective members used hand pollinating techniques to cross a diversity of colorful zinnias with the Green Envy, which was then bagged for isolation and identification. After the first hard frost, students went through the flower beds to save zinnias for seed, as before, and in particular, to save the bagged Green Envy variety for a separate trial in year three.
Next spring we will break ground on a new test bed for the crossed Green Envy zinnias, which will be isolated from the existing flower garden by well over 100 yards. Students will help start the seeds in the greenhouse and then transplant them into their new home for the summer growing season. When the flowers begin to bloom, we look for any evidence of a successful cross. Are there colors other than pale green? Are there variations in petal formation, flowerhead size or plant height? If we like what we see, we will save those seeds, thus selecting for the traits we want to keep. If nothing appears to have changed, we can try selectively crossing zinnias again to repeat the process.
Ultimately, the Land School hopes to develop its own variety of zinnia with a unique set of traits. This new variety can be named and then shared through the Lake Country School Seed Library, along with the story of the learning journey. We look forward to engaging students not only in the process of science but also as teachers, engaging the broader community in this ancient practice of plant breeding that has shaped not only the flowers and produce we are familiar with today, but also humanity itself along the way.
