Hi Xeramtheum,
I have crossed and continue to cross tubulars with both cactus flowered zinnias and some of my larger flowered hybrids, such as my aster flowered zinnias. At this time I have grown F2, F1xF1, F2xF1, F2xF2, and F3 seeds and, although I get significant yields of different versions of the tubular petaled zinnias, they are far from what I would call a stable strain. That may take years, particularly if I keep crossing stuff, but I can create a patch of tubular zinnias by simply planting recombinant seeds and culling out the non-tubular specimens.
My zinnia goals tend to be a "moving target", not so much because I change my mind about what I like, but because the zinnias themselves continually present me with new opportunities.
For example, last year I found a new mutant, which I call the Star-Tipped Mutant, and I crossed it with representative specimens of many of my ongoing projects, including the tubular petaled strain, and that cross opened up some significant improvements in the tubular strain.
I will continue to develop the "regular" tubular petaled zinnias, like I have shown samples of here. However, the Star-Tipped Mutant cross yielded tubulars with nice "toothy" petal ends. So I will be developing that strain as well. But right now, nothing much is as "stable" as you would hope that a commercial zinnia strain would be. (Although, many commercial strains have a stability problem as well.)
I will expound upon my encounter with the Star-Tipped Mutant zinnia in a new message thread in a day or two. I am almost relieved that I didn't find a new mutant zinnia so far this year. Things are already way too exciting in my zinnia garden.
ZM
