I had a few on my pots(which sadly died out because of heath waves) and thought that zinnia will do even better but what!Nothing touch it and my yard is not without wildlife either.
Could it be the hetay that doesn’t let to insects be active?Could it he a huge deforestation where I live?Could it be that this zinnias are not organic or even fake?I don’t get anything:(
Here in my village in Central Botswana there are a lot of highly invasive and alien ,red zinnia peruviana plants that flower profusely. I keep a lookout for pollinating insects but so far have only seen a caterpillar on a z peruviana flower. Perhaps our local Botswana insects don’t get attracted to a foreign scent. We don’t have many local flower species that are red here in Botswana and perhaps our local insects prefer blue, yellow, white and pink ! Perhaps the insects, like nocturnal moths, that do visit these flowers, only come at night, when I’m snoring in bed and not likely to see anything.
Are yours grown from seed ? Or bought from a nursery ? Then treated with insecticide for ‘perfect’ leaves and flowers to sell ? Try a smaller, biodiversity friendly nursery.
They were from seeds
I do not know where you are, but my first thought was to wonder if zinnias are native to where you are?
Where I live the plants that are not native are not so visited by insects, but the plants that are natives are very popular with the local insect set. (I assume the plants that are not native would be popular back home with their own local insect sets.)
From my former garden, this is my favorite plant of all, screamingly popular with bees (and of all sizes!), butterflies, ants, wasps, flies, beetles, other insects, as well as hummingbirds and even other birds.
This plant (H. patens) is native to here, but is locally considered “maleza”, not desired, but it would be very welcome if it popped up in my new garden because of the rich diversity it brings.
(edit to clarify I was speaking of H. patens, not zinnia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinnia
“The genus is native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexico.”
Maybe your environmental conditions aren’t favorable for this plant to produce nectar well. It doesn’t seem to require a specialist pollinator.
It’s possible you planted a sterile hybrid that either doesn’t produce nectar and pollen at all, or has so many extra petals covering the center that pollinators can’t easily access them.
I think this is the case:(
Now what to do?My parents absolutely don’t let me to get rid of them:(
Well, they are at least pretty to look at, and it’s nice that your parents are enjoying them.
If you live where winter temperatures fall below freezing, the zinnias will die, and you can plant something else next year.
If you live in a place that is warm year-round, the zinnias will be short lived perennials that may last three or four years.
Maybe you could get more pots, and plant native wildflowers in them? Zinnia pots for your parents, and native wildflower pots for pollinators, then everyone could be happy:)