Small Flowered Zinnias

I have just two varieties of zinnia in the garden. This red type I saw years ago in a fall garden at Montrose in Hillsborough NC looking spectacular with dark foliaged dahlias. I have not been able to grow the Dahlias successfully but the zinnias come up from seed I saved from last year. Select Seeds, where I got the original seed, calls it 'Red Spider'. Here's what Monticello says about it.
Zinnia pauciflora was grown in eighteenth-century gardens and was sold by Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon in 1804. Like its larger-petaled brethren, pauciflora is an annual flower native to South America. The small, attractive flowers show orangish-red throughout the summer and are very different from the hybrids now so popular.

My absolute favorite  is Zinnia angustifolia (linearis) 'Star White'. It self seeds in the gravel driveway and makes a great border for a sunny site. I have tried it in less sun but it becomes leggy & falls over. I always buy a lot at Big Bloomers in Sanford at the beginning of the growing season and volunteers come up in June to be transplanted or not. (Those that escape the herbicide my husband uses for the weeds in the driveway that is!)

You can see the ones I planted at the back of this area & volunteers in front. Free draining soil is essential for this all summer until frost flowering annual.