Zinnia 'Lilliput Mix' | The Petal Pop

Name: Zinnia 'Lilliput Mix' | The Petal Pop
Brand: Laura Florals
SKU: ZLM006
Price: 23.99 GBP
Availability: InStock

An upcycled wooden planter box filled with a colourful mix of zinnia flowers from Laura Florals flower planting kits sits on a wooden balcony deck, surrounded by potted herbs, a copper watering can, and a black wrought-iron railing. In the background, a scenic view of Liverpool and harbour is visible under a blue sky.

£23.99

Hot pink · Scarlet · Gold · Purple · White

Cut-and-come-again pompoms that flower harder the more you pick them — or simply snip off the faded ones. No garden, no greenhouse, no clue required either — that's rather the point.

The Zinnia 'Lilliput Mix' grow kit is a plastic-free, beginner-friendly planting kit with (almost) everything you need to grow zinnias from seed in a container — a bright jumble of small, fully double zinnia flowers in every colour a summer could want.

It grows into a compact, bushy little plant that's perfectly happy in a pot on a doorstep, balcony or sunny ledge — and it's one of the best cut flowers you can grow yourself.

Snip a jam-jar posy for the kitchen table and the plant simply makes more flowers, right through to the first frosts. Not one for the vase? Just deadhead the spent, faded flowers now and then and it'll keep blooming just the same.

Zinnias are also a magnet for bees and butterflies, so this little flower grow kit does a lot of good for its size.

New to growing? This is an easy seed kits to start with: fast to germinate, generous, and genuinely hard to stop once it's going. The more you cut — or deadhead — the more you get. A proper first-timer's win.

One honest heads-up: zinnias are half-hardy annuals, which is a polite way of saying they're softies about the cold. They hate frost and sulk in chilly soil, so up here in Scotland the rule is simple — don't rush them outside. Warmth first, flowers later.

What's in your kit

Dwarf Zinnia 'Lilliput mix' seeds
Seaweed meal — a gentle, slow all-rounder to wake up your compost
Wool pellets — scattered round the base of the seedlings, they hold moisture and help keep slugs off young plants
Comfrey pellets — naturally potassium-rich, exactly what a flower wants for masses of blooms
A plain-English grow guide, from sowing to the vase

What's not in your kit (on purpose):
No plastic planter, no bag of compost. You bring your own peat-free compost and an up-cycled container — anything with drainage holes. Less to post, less to bin, less to cost the earth.

Why choose this grow kit?

Plastic-free — and posted with plastic-free packaging too
Beginner-friendly: no garden, greenhouse or experience needed
Grows on a windowsill, balcony, doorstep or patio
Easy cut-flower kit to grow from seed
Every kit funds living wage jobs and horticultural training in Ayrshire

The bit that matters most

Every Grow Box funds living wage jobs and horticultural training right here in Ayrshire, for people overcoming homelessness. So your zinnias do a bit more than look pretty.

Ships plastic-free to mainland Great Britain.

Gardening, minus the gatekeeping.

Have a grow, Laura x

FAQs

Is the Zinnia Lilliput Mix grow kit suitable for beginners?
Yes — it's one of the easiest flower kits to start with. Zinnias germinate fast, grow quickly, and flower more the more you pick them, so beginners get a rewarding result. No garden, greenhouse or experience needed — a bright windowsill, balcony or doorstep is plenty.

Can I grow Zinnia 'Lilliput Mix' in a pot or container?
Yes — Lilliput is a compact, bushy zinnia suited to small spaces, so it does well in containers. Use a pot at least 30cm (12in) wide with drainage holes, filled with peat-free compost, in a sunny spot that gets six or more hours of sun a day.

What do I need to supply myself?
Just two things: a bag of peat-free compost and a container with drainage holes (an upcycled tub or bucket is perfect). The kit provides the seeds, the natural feeds and soil helpers, and a plain-English grow guide. We leave out the planter and compost on purpose — it keeps the kit lighter, cheaper and kinder to the planet.

Is the packaging plastic-free?
Yes — the kit is plastic-free, and we post it plastic-free too.

Where do you deliver?
We ship across mainland Great Britain. We can't post seeds or planting material to Northern Ireland — that's a Royal Mail restriction on sending seeds, not our choice.

Grow Guide

Zinnias are quick and generous — the two things to get right are warmth (they're frost-tender) and their roots (they hate being disturbed).

The one golden rule: zinnias resent having their roots messed about. So sow them into their own small pots or modules — not a shared tray you'll later prise apart — and plant them out while they're still young, gently, without breaking up the rootball. Or skip transplanting altogether and direct-sow outdoors.

The indoor start (recommended up in northern UK): sow March–April, one or two seeds per small pot, about 0.5–1cm deep, somewhere warm and bright (around 18–20°C). They're usually up within a week. Once all frost has passed, harden them off over 10–15 days — days outside, nights inside — then plant out into their final pot in late May–June.

Or sow straight outdoors: once the frost is well behind you and the soil's genuinely warm (around 20°C), from late May. In Scotland we run 2–3 weeks the season in England, so don't rush it — a cold, wet start rots the seed.

Spacing: about 10–15cm apart. In a pot, these dwarf Lilliputs are fine a bit closer than in the ground — a hand's width or so — with just five or six to a big container.

Pinch for more flowers: when a young plant is about 15–20cm tall, snip out the very top growing tip. It feels brutal, but it makes the plant branch out bushier and gives you far more flower stems. Well worth doing.

Zinnia plants like a sunny, free-draining home and a steady drink while they settle in — then they're fairly easy-going.

Watering — at the base, always. Water the compost, not the plant. Zinnias are prone to powdery mildew (a white, dusty coating on the leaves), and wet leaves are exactly what brings it on — so keep water off the foliage, and give plants a little breathing space for airflow. Keep the compost evenly moist until they're established; after that, don't drown them — they'd rather be a touch dry than sodden.

Wool pellets — once your seedlings are up (or at plant-out). Scatter the wool in a ring around the base of the seedlings, on the surface (not mixed in). It keeps moisture steady and, more importantly here, helps deter slugs — who adore a young zinnia. A loose ring, off the stem; wool swells when wet.

Comfrey and seaweed — from about 6 weeks, as buds form. Fresh compost feeds the plant early on, so there's no need to feed at planting. As it settles in and starts working up to flower, sprinkle the comfrey and seaweed over the surface around the base and water in. The comfrey's the one that earns its keep: it's potassium-rich, and potassium is the "flowers and fruit" nutrient — exactly what you want for masses of blooms.

Cutting & deadheading — this is where zinnias earn their keep.

Flowering runs from July right into October, and the golden rule is simple: the more you remove, the more you get. Whether you're cutting blooms for the vase or just snipping off the faded ones, you're telling the plant to make more — so a regularly-picked or deadheaded plant keeps flowering. Leave the old, spent flowers on the plant and it takes that as its signal to stop.

Not cutting for a vase? Just deadhead: pinch or snip off each flower as it fades and starts to look tatty, before it sets seed. Same trick, same result — more flowers, for longer.

Cutting for the kitchen table? Two tips: cut when the flower is fully open (zinnias don't open much further once cut), and cut a nice long stem — it triggers the plant to branch and throw up even more flowers below. So cutting for the vase literally makes the plant bloom harder.

And the real reward: the first bloom stops you in your tracks — a punch of colour you grew from a pinch of seed. Cut an armful, cram them in a jam jar on the windowsill, and you've got summer on the table that you made happen. That's the whole point.

A little bonus: unlike some kits, these aren't an F1 hybrid, so you can let a few of the last flowers dry on the plant, save the seed, and grow them again next year for free. It's a mix, so your saved seed won't come identical — but that's half the fun.

None of these mean you've failed — it's just a zinnia telling you something.

White, dusty coating on the leaves (powdery mildew): the classic zinnia gripe. Water at the base not over the leaves, don't crowd the plants, and give them air.
Seeds rot instead of sprouting: almost always sown too cold or too wet. Zinnias need real warmth — wait for it, and don't overwater before they're up.
Tall, floppy, pale seedlings: reaching for light. Give them your brightest spot, and remember to pinch the tips once they're growing well.
Lots of leaf, few flowers: usually too little sun, or soil too rich in nitrogen. Full sun is non-negotiable, and go easy on feeding — potassium (the comfrey), not lots of nitrogen, is what you want.
Seedlings stripped overnight: slugs love young zinnias. The ring of wool pellets helps as a barrier; a torch-lit patrol finishes the job.

Stuck on something not listed? Message us — that's genuinely what we're for. :-)

New to this? Here's what's true for every kit we sell.

Compost — you supply your own peat-free compost. Any good bag will do. We don't include it (it's heavy, and you may already have some).

Container — almost anything with drainage holes works: an upcycled bucket, a trough, a big pot. No holes means waterlogged roots, so make some if there aren't any. We don't send a planter on purpose — growing in what you've already got is cheaper and greener.

Light — most things want a bright spot: a sunny windowsill, or outside once the weather's kind. Each guide tells you what that plant prefers.

Gardening, minus the gatekeeping. If a step ever reads like jargon, that's on us, not you.

Every Laura Florals planting kit is built around what your plant actually needs.

Your zinnia kit contains:

Zinnia 'Lilliput Mix' seeds
Seaweed meal — a gentle all-rounder plant food to wake up your compost
Wool pellets — scatter round the base of your seedlings to hold moisture and help keep slugs off
Comfrey pellets — potassium-rich, for masses of flowers
A plain-English grow guide

What you supply: peat-free compost, and a container at least 30cm (12in) wide with drainage holes — an upcycled tub or bucket is perfect.

Everything ships plastic-free. We can only post seeds and planting material to mainland Great Britain — sorry, Northern Ireland, that's a Royal Mail rule, not ours.

We will work quickly to ship your order as soon as possible. Once your order has shipped, you will receive an email with further information. Delivery times vary depending on your location.

Our goal is for every customer to be totally satisfied with their purchase. If this isn't the case, let us know and we'll do our best to work with you to make it right.