I always grow a ton of cosmos every year. Last year the 'Picotee' mix were the stars of the garden(pic attached). Also the bipinnatus species were especially floriferus(pic to come). Cosmic Orange( sulphurous) was incredible. It just seemed like it never wanted to quit flowering.
What are you planning to do this year? How about what you did with cosmos last year? And what varieties and cultivars are you going to do?
~Daniel
Last year I tried the "double" Rose Bonbon. They were okay I guess ,but not as double as the photo in the catalogue.
I also grew the Seashells variety.
This year I am doing one called "Stripey". A white with pink or red edges.
Also the tall yellow and the shorter "Antiquity" which is a salmon pink.
I use cosmos in a wildflower patch and also in pots.
I want to try the Double Take Cosmos from Burpee Seeds
I always grow some of the orange/golden ones--they seem to go right up until frost gets them here. I've planted seed in containers as late as mid July and still ended up with 3 ft plants and loads of flowers into fall. I want Polidor too...it looks like more of a blend of orange, yellow and scarlet.
This year for the pink family I'm going with Antiquity (T&M full price, valueseed for 99 cents--both from T&M) and I want the new one at T&M Rubenza. Seashells is one I would like to try too. Oh, I also bought that pale yellow one--I usually just see it called Garden Yellow. Think I have Happy Ring around here somewhere too:lol:
I'm trying the Double Clicks this year.
Last year I grew the Picotee, which I did like. I have left over seeds so I will seed a few this year too. I have ordered a the dwarf Lemon Bird sulphureus from T&M. 12" with lemon yellow blooms. I think Lemon Bird will be a nice flower bed edging choice.
Daniel,
I seriously considered breeding cosmos as a hobby. There seem to be at least two kinds (species?), one of which has a color range from white to pale pink to pink to rose and magenta on to purple. Another kind has white, pale yellow, yellow, gold, and orange. I think it would be interesting to merge those two races of cosmos to produce a much wider color range. The flower forms are great. I like the singles, the doubles, the picotees, and the novelties like the Sea Shells. In fact, I hope to get a strain of zinnias with a flower form like the Sea Shells.
I dismissed the idea of breeding cosmos when I realized that the individual cosmos flowers don't last very long. An individual zinnia bloom develops over a period of weeks and the individual zinnia stigmas can remain receptive for many days, so a zinnia bloom gives you a comfortable wide window of opportunity to work with it. Not so with the cosmos. In a few days the cosmos flower is, as Bob Dylan's song goes, "blowin' in the wind." That said, for a person with a compatible persona, the cosmos offer a lot of opportunities for some very creative breeding. I am just not that person.
But I do admire the cosmos, and especially that Sea Shells flower form. I hope that some day I can get a zinnia that looks like that. Besides the tubular scabious florets (which I have now bred to over twice the size of the originals), zinnias occasionally have tubular petals, like this specimen. Some of its petals remind me of a Calla Lily. It's a long ways from Sea Shells, but maybe if I crossed tubular zinnias with scabious zinnia specimens...who knows what the future holds?
ZM
I also like chocolate cosmos. I have never seen seed available, but have boughten it as a bedding plant the last few years. It develops a tuber and I have saved them in hopes that they will grow again. The chocolate cosmos are similar to a dahlia in regards to the tuber & foliage.
From my years here and the annual posts looking for chocolate cosmos seeds, I gather that it isn't seed producing and only can be grown from tubers and division. I tried one a few years ago but I think it got too much water and rotted. May try them again.
Apparently Chocolate Cosmos cannot be grown for seed, as appears down on this page:
http://www.chocolateflowerfarm.com/seeds___seed_kits
The roots are available from many sources, including Territorial:
http://www.territorialseed.com/product/4207/14
ZM
This linked article says that Chocolate Cosmos are self sterile, and hence do not produce seeds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_atrosanguineus
However, that article does not say that Chocolate Cosmos doesn't have functional stigma or viable pollen. It does not rule out the possibility of crossing it onto another Cosmos using its pollen, or using the pollen from another Cosmos on it. Might be worth a try.
ZM
Thanks ZM!
This thread is getting busy!
Zen, thanks for making this thread so informational!
dmac, the one Sulphur Cosmos you must try is 'Cosmic'. All of them are absolutly spectacular! They NEVER quit flowering, unless they are made to carried over from one year to the next.
joanna, great pic of Picotee! The Lemon Bird looks in T&M looks almost identical to Cosmic Yellow (when I find a pic, I will post)
~Daniel
Thanks Daniel:) Those are the shorter ones right? I could definitely use some shorter ones in the front beds--and I do adore seed shopping:lol: Thanks for the tip about that series!
Donna
Do u want some? I collected 200+ seeds. Surely I could give u and anybody who wants some at least enough to cover 10' X 2'!
Zen, is Post #7423408 real? It looks incredible!!! I can see why it reminds you of a Calla Lily.
And u mentioned that the Sulpher cosmos come in "Another kind has white, pale yellow, yellow, gold, and orange." ? I don't think I have ever seen white Sulphur Cosmos!
joanna, here is a link to a pic of Cosmic yello (by me)>
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/265434/
Daniel,
"I don't think I have ever seen white Sulphur Cosmos! "
Apparently there isn't any. I had seen some white single cosmos planted with some yellow single cosmos, and they looked like "siblings", but apparently they were not. Perhaps a little cosmos hybridization could remedy that.
"...is Post #7423408 real?"
Definitely real. The tubular petal zinnia variant is not extremely rare, and if you grow a lot of zinnias, you will probably have one or more. The more common form doesn't involve all of the petals uniformly, although some people have had specimens in which all petals were involved equally. I am saving seeds from my "tubulars" with the intent of purifying, enhancing, and stabilizing a strain of them. I'm not so much impressed by the ones I have had, as I am with the potential for the tubulars being changed into something much more spectacular, like, for example, Cosmos Pied Piper:
http://www.burpee.com/product/annual+flowers/cosmos/cosmos+pied+piper+red++-+pied+piper+-+1+pkt.%2850+seeds%29.do
The Cosmos Sea Shells also have similar petals. I'm trying to coax some zinnias in that direction.
ZM
Another "tubular" zinnia.
ZM
Another "tubular" specimen.
ZM
Yet another "tubular" zinnia variant.
ZM
Some zinnias look "tubular" when they first bloom out, but their petals are not truly tubular, like this specimen, for example.
ZM
I'd love some of the Cosmic cosmos seeds Daniel! Thank you for the nice offer:) I'll get a sasbe on it's way to you tomorrow--I'm assuming you're listed in the address book--if not just dmail your address. That is a really great photo of your yellow cosmos too!!
Zen--those tubular zinnia photos make me want to grow them and I'm not a zinnia fan:lol:
Really beautiful:)
neat zinnas Zen_Man
A photo, from this morning, of the first blooms on Cosmo "Rubenza" grown from seed. I believe this variety is fairly new....2008 or 2009???
Jon
Zone Envy here. I won't see any new blooms for few more months. I plan to order a few different Zinnias from Veseys, but wont start them until March.
Zone envy here too! But I still have poinsettias and some geraniums (pelargoniums} are flowering in the south window. Rubenza cosmos goes on the list for the next garden centre trip!
From the photo, I can not tell how tall they are? Do they grow tall?
Zone envy here too! Our current temperature is, as I type this, zero degrees, up from minus 11 last night. It is snowing lightly right now. Our power was out for four hours yesterday. The good news is that my indoor zinnias are doing fine and some of my new crop of 2010 zinnias are getting their second true leaves. Many of them are hybrids between my choicest recent hybrids, and the "green seed" technique is still working fine for germinating immature seeds from still living petals.
ZM
It lists Cosmos "Rubenza" height at 24-36". Mine are only about 12" tall at the moment. The seeds came from Thompson & Morgan. I think "Rubenza" was on the cover of one of their recent catalogs, it caught my eye and I ordered it.
Today's our one warm day (low 70's) before the temperatures plummet again tomorrow morning. Possible frost/freeze here Sunday & Monday morning. Possible snow/sleet for Orlando tonight/tomorrow morning.
Jon
I think I'm going to have to order Rubenza now:lol: I really love that color:)
The color is very similar to this new variety of Gaillardia named "Sunburst Burgundy Silk" growing in the front yard.
Jon
Jon, both pix are very beautiful
Zen, AMAZING Zinnia... Hope some of them will "behave" and become true tubulars.
What is the green seeds techinque? Is it just planting fresh, unripe seeds, or is it more than that?
Rubenza looks REALLY interesting. I am not sure when it was relesed... maybe 2008?
Did any of you see SnowPuff? Or that Pysche Picotee? Really interesting!
And the cover of Select Seeds is a Cosmo! Talina mix I think it is?
I hope next year I will be seeing Seashells in my garden...;)
dmac, looking foward to your SASBE:>) Thanks for the comment on the Yellow Cosmic!
~Daniel
Daniel,
"What is the green seeds technique? Is it just planting fresh, unripe seeds, or is it more than that?"
It's a little more than that. The seed coat on a green zinnia seed is still living, so it is impervious to water. You could just plant the seeds and wait for the seed coat to die and become water permeable. It will usually germinate in two or three weeks that way.
But in order to cause it to germinate quicker, I use a sharp knife to "surgically scarify" the green seeds, to breach the seed coat in one way or another, so that the enclosed embryo can imbibe water. As is shown in the picture, there are several ways of doing that. That allows the green seeds to germinate much faster.
ZM
Thank you for responding!!!
If I were to plant "green" seeds, that have been "surgically scarifyed", how long will it take the seeds to bloom? Is this technique better indoors, or out? And, is the seed more vulnerable to disease?
~Daniel
P.S. What happens when u deadhead Cosmos >
Daniel,
"...how long will it take the seeds to bloom?"
For zinnia seeds, six to eight weeks.
"Is this technique better indoors, or out?"
Indoors. I have planted non-scarified green seeds outdoors, but they took three weeks or more to emerge. I don't like to start "fancy" zinnias outdoors, because I have had a lot of bad experiences with cutworms.
"...is the seed more vulnerable to disease? "
I would assume so, because the naked embryo is at least partially exposed. I use a sterile growing medium (Premier ProMix BX) and I usually have a spray bottle with some Physan 20 solution handy for general cleanup, so after I plant a green seed, I usually (but not always) give the soil surface a quick spritz. Knock on wood, but I don't have problems with disease in my zinnia seedlings. I have a bunch growing right now.
ZM
Thanks for all the info, Zen!!! ☺
~Daniel
P.S. Really great pic of comos after their once a year watering;)
Anyone growing the Sonata series? I've enjoyed those the last few years, full size blooms on 2 1/2' plants. They start blooming much faster from seed than the tall ones too.
Yes, I have a packet of Sonata Dwarf Cosmos and also Limonara Lemon and Antiquity. I think I ran across a white dwarf too. Some of the tall like the Yellow Garden Cosmos must be short day plants because they begin flowering so late.
I am going to plant the tall one either East or West of the house so they get less light and see if they flower earlier.
I think that I have not yet grown the Sonatas, but will be growing the Gazebos, which I think are almost the same. Are the Sonatas more resitant to stem rot (the only problem with cosmos)?
~Daniel
This in not my beautiful garden, but I know it is Sonata series from seed.
Not really sure about Sonata's stem rot resistance, as I don't think I've encountered that problem.
Dale, wowowowowowow on the pic! I think that one deserves to be put as my desktop backround! LOL!
Stem rot is the worst disease here, only affects Cosmos though. 90% of 'Sensations' are dead by August, that's how bad it is:(((
~Daniel
P.S. CLScott, what is Yellow Garden cosmo? Is it bipinnatus or sulpherus?
