Annual Cosmos for a Riot of Color

If you have a barren, unfertile area in your backyard garden that gets a lot of sun, plant some cosmos from seed and stand back - it will astound you! Cosmos is one of the fastest growing and easiest to grow and bloom annual ornamental flowering plant.

Cosmos is a herbacious plant with delicate fern-like foliage carried in an open, almost sprawling habit. It is native to Central America and Mexico and grown mostly as an annual from seed. Cosmos likes hot, dry conditions and some varieties can attain heights of six feet or more which also makes them ideal as background plantings.

The abundant, mostly single, daisylike flowers are 2 to 4 inch across and come in a color range from white through magenta, as well as creamy yellow to dark vivid orange. The flowers are carried high above the foliage on long thin stems which are well suited for cutting. If you take the time to deadhead, flowers will appear continuously all through the growing season and well into the late autumn. If plants are really growing tall after their first bloom, cut them down by about half and you will get another burst of bloom in about a month.

Sow cosmos seed early in spring. Prepare the soil by first watering the planting area thoroughly. The next day, use a rake to roughen up the surface and broadcast the seed. Scatter about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of topsoil over the seeds and tamp down with a board or by simply walking over the seeded area. Give it another scant spray of water. Keep the area reasonably moist, but don't overwater, until seedlings emerge and are about 2 inches tall. These are easy to identify because of their fern-like foliage.

If you have groups of seedlings growing very close together, thin to leave the strongest ones to stand about 8 inches apart. You can try to transplant some (along with a good portion of surrounding soil) to barren spots and water them in. After that, let nature take over. Your plants will take off and grow at an astonishing speed without any more attendance unless there is no rainfall. If there is a drought or the weather is unusually warm and windy, examine the plants and give them a good soaking if the foiliage appears wilted.

The only thing you can do wrong growing annual cosmos is to treat it too well. Fertilizer will promote lush growth at the expense of flowers.

Cosmos plants are self seeding, so chances are that once you have an established colony of cosmos in your backyard garden, they will reappear every year without intervention.