The same late-summer fireworks; wildly different amounts of work to get there.
Shot to one scale: bloom beside bloom, from our own library.
The verdicts, line by line
Every line below is a field of the open table, not an opinion.
In the vase
In plain water the gap is not taste, it is arithmetic: zinnias hold 7 to 10 days while dahlia manages 4 to 5. Money settles the rest of the argument: zinnias wholesale around $0.75 to $1.50 a stem against $1.60 to $5, roughly double for the same job. Those are typical trade prices, not a quote: what a florist charges you moves with the season and the region.
In the garden
In the ground they are different commitments entirely: dahlia settles in for years anywhere in zones 7 to 10.5, while zinnias are a one-season ticket in most of the country. On upkeep the table sides with zinnias: rated medium maintenance against high. And if deer walk through, the choice makes itself: Rutgers rates zinnias B while dahlia gets eaten.
The full card
A line is marked only where one flower clearly leads. Equal or too-close values are left plain.
| Field | Dahlia | Zinnias |
|---|---|---|
| Vase life, days | 4 to 5 | 7 to 10 |
| Wholesale, per stem | $1.60 to $5 | $0.75 to $1.50 |
| Fragrance | not recorded | Not noted as fragrant |
| Light | Full sun to part shade | Full sun |
| Water | Medium | Medium |
| Hardiness zones | 7 to 10.5 | 2 to 11 |
| Bloom months | 3 months | 5 months |
| Deer (Rutgers) | Occasionally severely damaged (Rutgers C) | Seldom severely damaged (Rutgers B) |
| Cats (ASPCA) | Toxic | Listed non-toxic |
| Out of water | Poor | Poor |
We keep one table of 85 flowers, with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it. A flower that does not fit a job is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is named. Nothing here is sponsored, and no score can be bought. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself. The full method ↗
Read the full profile
Everything the table holds on each of them, in plain prose.