Orange Cosmos
May 31, 2015
These fun bright Orange Cosmos are always welcome in my garden! Easy to grow , they can perk up any yard.
Cosmos are pretty much nonstop blooms that are sturdy and don’t need much care at all. Great attraction for bees and butterflies a must I say in any garden. They can grow to about 4ft, the blossom itself up to about 2 inches wide making it very eye catching. Cosmos have several good qualities about them, one being they are heat and drought tolerant. It’s important when selecting plants for your garden to make sure you know how to care for them, are they able to stand heat? Can they stand poor soil? Will they survive drought like conditions? Be selective in this process or you can set yourself up for failure even before you plant. Whether they are pretty or not, if the conditions aren’t ideal for that plant, they will not thrive.
Cosmos can not only stand the high heat, drought like conditions but they can thrive in different soils as well, as long as it’s well draining even the poorest of soils can be the ideal home for these flowers.
How to plant- You can sow outside after the danger of frost or inside about 5-7 weeks before you plant to transfer outside. Needs full sun so don’t try to spruce up a shaded area with them they grow best with full on sun for the better part of the day. Plant just about half an inch deep, I just jab my pinkie finger into the dirt just past my finger nail and drop the seed in.
Cosmos are towering plants, they grow quick too, and if left alone they will drop their seeds and start up again next year. Snipping some of the dead heads ( spent flowers) will drive the plant into more blooms, if you’d like to collect and harvest the seeds you can follow these simple steps.
After the petals fall off and dry up the base of the flower will start to close up again, it’ll look like a fat green bud. It will stay this way for a little bit before slowly drying up. It will get to be a light brown color and slowly start to look like the top is opening.
In the process of drying up, the fat green bud starts to shrink and turn brown
You can usually just tip the seedhead upside down and the seeds will fall out easily, other times a little scrap of your finger inside will remove them all.
Now you can either save for next year !
Super easy to plant, quick growing, easy no worry care even in poor soils, bright colorful blossoms from spring to summer Cosmos are a delightful addition to the garden!
24 Comments
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The Mid-Atlantic Foodie
Those are beautiful flowers and I know my daughter The Artist would adore them. We should plant some. SN: Did you change your layout? I feel like something’s different, because those pictures when you first arrive seem new, but I LOVE them!
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Melanie
I change the weekly popular post pictures each week 🙂 Slideshow is the same but will be updated when I take new landscapes 🙂 I’m glad you love them!
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Mama to 5 BLessings
Those are beautiful! My daughter loves to pick flowers, I so could see her wanting these!
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Ann Bacciaglia
These flowers are so pretty. I would love to add them to my garden. The color is fantastic.
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Jennifer Williams
We have these growing in our yard. I will definitely be using your method to get seeds to plant in new areas next year. I love their bright yellow color – so beautiful and simple.
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touristmeetstraveler
That is really cool, I never knew that they actually did that! This was something really awesome to learn.
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Jeanine
What pretty flowers! I haven’t seen anything like them before, they are super gorgeous. I am a huge flower lover. So this is great info, hopefully I see them!
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Valerie
These are absolutely stunning! I love the color and the fact that they are so easy to grow. I also love how easy they are to grow year after year!
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Anne | HealthySouthernMama.com
Those are beautiful, so bright and cheery! “No worry care” is a must for me … no green thumb here.
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Carmen Perez (listen2mama)
Oh I love all flowers, don’t have much of a green thumb, but I sure do love to look at them and always have fresh flowers in my home.
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Lois Alter Mark
Those are gorgeous and would really brighten our garden. I had no idea what they were called but will definitely be planting these.
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Connie
Cosmos are very easy to grow. I used to have them in my yard and would love to have them again.
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Toughcookiemommy
These blooms are so beautiful. I wish I could smell them through my computer because their colors are absolutely lovely.
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Daisy
Those are such gorgeous flowers! I love the bright color and beautiful petals.
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Lesley
Orange Cosmos are beautiful. I love the name too. I like the different stages you photographed of the flower.
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Robin Rue (@massholemommy)
Those are such pretty flowers. I have seen them before, but never knew what they were called.
ourfamilyworld
They are so beautiful. I have never planted cosmos before. I need to give it a try