A Guide About Cosmos Flower

In Greek kosmos signifies orderliness, perfection, and beauty in the sense of symmetry. It is curious that the genus Cosmos, of which there are about twenty-five species diffused throughout Mexico, Bolivia, and the warmer zones of the United States, should be one of the most disorderly of cultivated plants, preferring to establish itself here and there at random, in large groups or as a single plant, with a penchant for invading vegetable gardens, orchards, or for establishing itself against wire netting, hedges, walls, and even on the rubbish dump. This vagabond characteristic actually demonstrates how cosmos should be grown, since they certainly do not merit a place of honour in the garden. The pale-green much-divided foliage is not particularly attractive, and the first summer thunderstorm will massacre mature plants and break most of their stalks. Cosmos are closely related to coreopsis, which are much better garden plants, although their colour range is restricted to yellow and brownish red, while cosmos have larger blooms and a colour range extending through crimson, orange, pink, red, violet-pink, and white.

Cultivation. Cosmos are so easy and so accommodating that there is not much to tell concerning cultivation. The plants thrive in any good garden soil that is fresh and rich in humus but not excessively fertilized, and located in a sunny position. Too much manure will produce excessive foliage and few flowers. They appreciate a lot of water during the summer. According to the earliness of the spring season, seed can be sown in frames in February—March. Seedlings should be transplanted later into their flowering positions. Seed can also be sown from March to Ma directly where it is to bloom. In any case, early sowing is advisable because cosmos prefer a short day, with less than fourteen hours of daylight. Seed sown in April—May will not bloom until late summer or early autumn. This preference for shorter days is very marked in regions where the autumns are long, with fine, sunny weather. Plants that flowered well in early summer, but were much less prolific during July and August, generally show a renewed vigour during autumn's shorter days, bursting out with rapid, new growth and an abundance of new flowers.

Cosmos atrosanguineus Cav.

Native to Mexico. In many respects this resembles a small dahlia, with its bushy compact habit and its way of forming a mass of small tubers that can be lifted from the soil in autumn and stored like dahlia tubers. In frost-free localities, C. atrosanguineus can be treated as a perennial and left in the ground permanently. The flowers are dark brownish red, velvet-textured, in diameter. Leaves are deeply divided, each segment narrow, pointed, and dentated.

Cosmos bipinnatus Cav.

Native to Mexico. The popular annual cosmos cultivated in our gardens is certainly not the true species, but of hybrid origin, derived from Cosmos bipinnatus. Very large, mostly single flowers in shades of pink, crimson, purple-red, and white are borne on delicate long stems. The pale-green foliage is finely divided. There are many popular varieties, as well as a form with an extra row of petals in the centre of the flower, producing a semi-double appearance.

Cosmos diversifolius Otto

 Native to Mexico. This perennial species is often cultivated as an annual. It is similar in general appearance to the common cosmos; solitary, dark red or purple-red flowers and velvet-textured petals, with the central disc also dark red. Foliage divided into segments; the terminal segment is the largest. The roots form small dahlia- like tubers and the plait is sometimes referred to as Cosmos dahlioides.

Cosmos sulphureus Cav.

Native to Mexico. Dwarfer in habit and more compact in form than the tall large-flowered cosmos. Flower in diameter, in various shades of orange and yellow, solitary, and long-stalked. Elegant and graceful dark-green leaves, prolific, up to, long, and much-divided.