Yes, I'd say that's characteristic of zinnias. However, older cultivars or contemporary strains which are not well managed tend to produce open flowers - in other words, a shallow ring of ray flowers around a center of disk flowers. The ray flowers go on and on, but eventually fade and discolor. In forms which produce a progression of ray flowers, you don't notice the fading because the faded ray flowers are buried under the new ray flowers. If you dig around under the newer, brightly colored ray flowers, you'll usually find old faded ones. The faded ray flowers often have a papery, used-tea-bag look. Some other composites with multiplied ray flowers do the same thing. I think zinnias are great! When I read the subject line of David's post, I thought he would be telling us about his experiences with one of the cold-hardy perennial zinnias. Jim McKenney