A History of Zinnias

Eric Grissell was born in Washington, DC, but spent his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. After obtaining a PhD in entomology from the University of California, Davis, he began work at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services identifying wasps, bees, and ants of agricultural importance. He eventually became a research entomologist for the US Department of Agriculture's Systematic Entomology Laboratory, stationed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. He retired after twenty-six years of service and moved first to Arizona and then to Eugene, Oregon. Although primarily trained as an entomologist, Grissell's second love is botany and horticulture. His first book of garden essays, entitled Thyme on My Hands, appeared in 1986, followed by A Journal in Thyme in 1994. Incorporating entomology, botany, and horticulture together, he published the award-winning Insects and Gardens in 2001 and Bees, Wasps, and Ants in 2010. Grissell has published over one hundred scientific papers on insects and a dozen garden essays for popular horticultural magazines.

Preface 1. From Gilbert and Sullivan to Corvettes 2. Starting in the Middle 3. Search for the Historic Zinnia: New Spain and Old Legends 4. Of Marigolds, Dahlias, and Zinnias 5. Coming of Age: The European Period 6. Homeward Bound: America 7. Doubling Your Pleasure 8. The Revolution 9. Confusion Reigns 10. Modern Times, or Sex to the Rescue 11. In the Garden Acknowledgments Appendix 1: Seed Sources and Developers Appendix 2: Zinnia Awards Appendix 3: Zinnia Species

"A perfect book for those who love history, plants, the unraveling of mysteries, and a wry sense of humor. Through meticulous research, Eric Grissell debunks numerous tall tales about zinnias and gives readers the real story."