Hi Judy,
Zowie zinnias are a great one for butterflies and hummingbirds, because they have so many pollen florets which bear the nectar that butterflies, hummingbirds and bees desire. I am personally not a fan of Zowie because it does have that tall central cone that bears the many pollen florets.
"With several different varieties I may get some interesting crosses."
You can guarantee interesting crosses if you "be the bee" and do the cross pollination yourself. It is quite easy to do and requires only a pair of tweezers, twissors, or forceps -- whatever you have and are comfortable with. Simply rub the fuzzy yellow starfish shaped pollen florets against the thin Y-shaped stigmas at the base of each petal, and you will get a hybrid seed at the base of that petal -- a hybrid of your own making.
"Any tips for saving seeds?"
Yes. You don't need to wait for the seed head to die and become brown. As an alternative, you can pluck petals that have live green seeds attached, and dry them for a week or two before storing them. That avoids the danger of seed-eating birds getting your seeds, and it also avoids the danger of pre-germination in the seed heads if there is a rainy period. It is also easier to distinguish viable embryo-containing seeds from "empty" seeds in the green seed stage.
Click on the pictures for a bigger version. To get back here, find the little arrow at the lower right-hand corner of the picture and click it.
Notice that the fat green seeds are attached to petals that still have color, and are not dead.
However, if you are dealing with a brown dead zinnia flowerhead that contains seeds, you can pick out the good seeds by tearing the head apart on a sheet of white paper and looking for good seeds. Some seeds will look good even though they don't contain a viable embryo. You can gently squeeze a seed between your thumb and forefinger and feel whether it is "fat" with an embryo or just an empty seed jacket. Another way to determine if a seed has an embryo is to gently try to bend it. If the jacket is empty, the seed will bend easily. If it has an embryo, it will resist bending. Don't bend too hard, you can break a good seed, which may make it unable to germinate. Occasionally a broken seed can germinate, but its seed leaves will be missing the outer halves. Even though it will be slowed in development at first, it can eventually develop into a normal plant. I package my zinnia seeds in Snack sized Ziploc bags, including a 3x5 card with notations about the seeds.
If you have any questions about any of this, don't hesitate to ask.
ZM
