New partnership with Thrive and Chiltern Seeds produces stunning Zinnia ‘Lilliput Purple’
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Thrive is celebrating a new partnership with Chiltern Seeds which is selling a stunning new Zinnia ‘Lilliput Purple’ in aid of the charity, which uses gardening to help people with disabilities and ill health.
With 2017 being named ‘Year of the Zinnia’ Chiltern Seeds was confident ‘Lilliput Purple’ would be a winner, and in just a few months it is already the seed company’s best-selling new item!
Zinnia 'Lilliput Purple' has abundant, small and perfectly formed pompom flowers on strong, medium height, perfect-for-cutting stems.
£1.50 from each packet sold is being donated to Thrive and the seeds are only available from the Chiltern Seeds website or via their catalogue.
Sally Redhead from Chiltern Seeds, said: "We became interested in the work that Thrive do after researching the link between mental health and the positive effects of gardening for one of our latest news articles for our website.
"We think the work they do is fantastic, bringing positive changes to people with disabilities and mental health problems through gardening.
"Last year we donated seeds for their veg box scheme that they ran in Birmingham and then donated the profits from our Christmas Cards.
"We thought a good way of raising money and awareness would be to sell a particular item in our catalogue. We chose the Zinnia because they are generally popular plants and easy to grow, and purple is one of the charity’s colours so thought it would make a good choice.”
What's adding to their popularity at this time is that 2017 is the year of the Zinnia. Every year, Fleuroselect – the organisation which trials new seed varieties in European conditions – choose a flower of the year to focus their efforts on.
Zinnias are already much more popular now than they were 30 years ago and are widely grown in British gardens. Loved for being similar to, yet completely independent from, the dahlia and the daisy and their bright, vibrant colours, zinnias are set to come into their own in 2017.
Kathryn Rossiter, Thrive CEO, said: “We are so pleased with this new partnership with Chiltern Seeds and thrilled to hear that the Zinnia is already proving so popular.
“As the plants are easy to grow, long-living and produce such wonderful bright blooms we think they are a good choice for getting people interested in gardening and developing a lasting interest which can be a route to a more healthy lifestyle.”
So it's perfect timing to buy the delightful 'Lilliput Purple' and grow this long-lasting, colourful annual.
They need to be sown in the protection of a greenhouse or a propagator on a bright house windowsill in mid to late spring. When they’re large enough to handle, prick them out individually and grow on before transplanting outdoors when all risk of frost has passed. Alternatively, they can be sown direct once the frosts have passed.
Zinnias make brilliant cut flowers for vibrant bunches in the house. Cut the main flower stem out for an arrangement and more flowers are soon produced from side shoots further down; strip the bottom leaves off the stems before placing them in water.
For more information visit www.chilternseeds.co.uk
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