Jan 31
Cosmos is one of the traditional birth flowers for October, sharing the month with the marigold. With its delicate petals, airy foliage, and long flowering season, cosmos is a particularly fitting October flower: many varieties are still blooming abundantly as summer gives way to autumn. The flower has also developed a rich collection of symbolic …
Jan 31
Cosmos comes in far more forms than the familiar tall pink flowers often seen in cottage gardens. Modern and heirloom varieties can produce white, blush, crimson, burgundy, pale yellow, apricot, orange, striped, picotee, double, tubular, ruffled, and even cup-shaped flowers, while plant heights range from compact varieties little more than a foot tall to cutting-garden …
Jan 31
Red cosmos flowers can range from bright carmine and crimson to deep cranberry, wine, burgundy, and warm red-orange. Although seed catalogs sometimes group all of these shades under the simple label “red cosmos,” the plants can look remarkably different once they begin flowering. Some of the best red-toned cosmos belong to Cosmos bipinnatus, the familiar …
Jan 31
Orange cosmos flowers bring some of the brightest color in the Cosmos genus, ranging from clear tangerine and pumpkin orange to golden orange, scarlet-orange, and fiery red-orange. Unlike the familiar pink and white garden cosmos, most genuinely orange cosmos belong to Cosmos sulphureus, a warm-season annual especially well suited to sunny beds, containers, pollinator gardens, …
Jan 31
Pink cosmos flowers are among the most recognizable flowers in summer and autumn gardens, but “pink cosmos” can describe far more than one simple shade or variety. Flowers range from almost-white blush and shell pink to clear rose, purplish pink, hot magenta, and deep pink marked with crimson. Modern cultivars also offer ruffled centers, picotee …
Jan 31
Cosmos can be annuals or perennials depending on the species. The familiar pink, white, and crimson garden cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus, is an annual. Yellow and orange Cosmos sulphureus is also an annual. Chocolate cosmos, Cosmos atrosanguineus, is different: it is a tuberous perennial capable of living for multiple years when its underground growth survives the …
Jan 31
Purple cosmos flowers bring cool, dramatic color to summer gardens, but there is an important distinction to make before choosing a variety: not every cosmos described as purple produces a true violet-purple flower. Many so-called purple cosmos actually fall somewhere between magenta, purplish pink, wine red, burgundy, crimson-purple, and bluish red. True cool violet is …
Jan 31
Cosmos is best known for its colorful daisy-like flowers, but the foliage is nearly as distinctive as the blooms. Healthy cosmos leaves can be delicate and thread-like, broader and deeply divided, or somewhere in between depending on the species. Learning what normal cosmos foliage looks like makes it much easier to identify young plants before …
Jan 31
Blue cosmos flowers appear regularly in online photographs, social media posts, seed listings, and garden inspiration boards. The flowers may look cobalt blue, sky blue, turquoise, or even electric blue, often with the familiar yellow center and feathery foliage of garden cosmos. But are those flowers real? True blue cosmos is not an established garden …
Jan 31
White cosmos flowers combine the airy growth of classic garden cosmos with one of the easiest colors to use in a landscape. Their bright petals and yellow centers work equally well in cottage gardens, cutting beds, pollinator plantings, moon gardens, wedding gardens, and large meadow-style displays. Most white garden cosmos belongs to Cosmos bipinnatus, the …
