Scabiosa flowered zinnias are beautiful. The first time I had ever seen a photo of them, I was automatically lured to their poofy looking crested blooms. Much like everything else on the internet, however, all that glitters is not gold. I’ve been growing these plants for about three seasons now – be ready to be disappointed.
Over the years, I’ve only had one real success with scabiosa flowered zinnias. This happened when I grew Zinderella Lilac zinnias last year. A quick search here on the blog will show those lovely flowers. For the most part, these types of zinnias are incredibly unreliable. There has been tons of speculation about this, but it seems that no one really knows the actual reason. 
This year’s flowers have almost no “scabiosa” characteristic whatsoever, despite being ‘Pastel Shades’ Cupcake Mix zinnias. Many people blame stress from heat and watering for the flower form – but I honestly haven’t noticed a correlation here in my garden. 
Such beautiful colors..I have never seen these pastel colors in zinnias. I love them, but they don’t seem to reseed themselves and my eventually vanished.
I was similarly disappointed in the Zinderella Lilacs I planted for the first time this year. Only plant gave the Scabiosa effect (it really is gorgeous). I’m going to try to save the seeds from that one plant.