I planted cosmos for the first time last year and as I remember they budded early enough and while still small, but didn't actually flower for weeks, I remember because I thought they would never flower. I wouldn't worry about them.
No Fire. They were potted up to show her what to do, but they have only recently leapt into full growth. They are more robust than the March sowings but not flowering yet.
Thanks to all! Particularly those of you who have said 'don't worry' - I think I'll take that as my gardening mantra from now on ...good ole Bob Marley... Happy, fragrant, colourful and fruitful summers to you all! :-D
Me too. I planted cosmos in March and carefully cosseted them on a windowsill inside - dragged them up to about an inch over the months (not enough good light). Then I whacked some seeds in a few weeks ago outside, thinking it was too late and those new seeds are now grown into robust, plants, bigger and stronger than the early plantings. It's a bit gutting, after all the work and careful inside watering. I also popped in some old sweetpeas too, in a spare pot, not thinking much of it, and, behold! they have romped away in two weeks and are much stronger than earlier plantings. So much for planning ahead.
I feel you Fire.. the same thing happens to me all the time. Seemingly year after year. You'd think I'd learn my lesson eventually. This year it was pumpkins.. the 'volunteers' outside are way ahead than my windowsill mollycoddled ones.
I'd like to add a small lesson I learned from Cosmos: apparently they like poor soil, and you shouldn't feed them or they just put on more green. I fed them diligently every week, and I finished up with monsters that were about 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide before they started flowering. They did eventually flower abundantly, but were much too big for my little garden.
@karenfletcher I had this problem with Psyche White so chose not to grow it again, but the others were ok if slightly dumpy. This year I have not pinched out to see if that helps as my soil is quite rich. You make a good point.
Yes, the same happened with me last year. They didn't start flowering until Sept, by which time they had got six ft tall and three across. More like a small tree (literally). They looked very majestic and flowered until the frost came, but it was a nail biting time, wondering if they were going to open before the ice. Thank the gods for late frost. They lit up the garden through October. I suspect the same will happen this year, unless I grow them in pots. But I have run out of pots.
Good lord, Karen, 8 feet! You must have had fun getting rid of them when they were over! Mine are going in containers about 2' wide, last year three per container filled them, they grew to about 3' and gave a nice mix of colours (accidentally, obviously! - I sowed Sonata last year (and didn't have the early budding problem, but can't remember when I sowed them)). The remainder I had intended to plant out on one side of the sweetpea trellis, in the hopes that the sweetpeas would grow tall enough to allow me to pick them over the top of the cosmos, but based on your collective advice I think the sweetpea bed would be too well-fed for them, and I'll have to find somewhere else... (As they say in the ads, nicer problems to have! )
Incidentally, don't know about you, but I find the advice to treat antirrhinums as annuals is unnecessary (and wasteful). I've got 5 years out of them before they get too old and woody, and expect that now. The second and subsequent years often find them more prolific than the first (I love antirrhinums), and if you deadhead you'll get a succession of flowers from breaks down the remaining stems right through till first frosts. Mind you, I live at the bottom of the Ards Peninsula (that funny wee arm that sticks out of the righthand side of Northern Ireland) and we seem to benefit from a very mild microclimate - shielded (by the Mourne Mountains?) from the bad weather that sweeps in from the west - the weather here often seems to be better even than the north end of the Peninsula. But I find the antirrhinums will tolerate a fair degree of frost and occasional snow, sturdy little beggars. They don't look pretty over the winter, but they'll gather themselves up again in the spring and often flower earlier than annuals.
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<ps now that I've found you, I'll be back...
I'd like to add a small
lesson I learned from Cosmos: apparently they like poor soil, and you shouldn't feed them or they just put on more green. I fed them diligently every week, and I finished up with monsters that were about 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide before they started flowering. They did eventually flower abundantly, but were much too big for my little garden.
Karen
I had this problem with Psyche White so chose not to grow it again, but the others were ok if slightly dumpy. This year I have not pinched out to see if that helps as my soil is quite rich. You make a good point.
Mine are going in containers about 2' wide, last year three per container filled them, they grew to about 3' and gave a nice mix of colours (accidentally, obviously! - I sowed Sonata last year (and didn't have the early budding problem, but can't remember when I sowed them)). The remainder I had intended to plant out on one side of the sweetpea trellis, in the hopes that the sweetpeas would grow tall enough to allow me to pick them over the top of the cosmos, but based on your collective advice I think the sweetpea bed would be too well-fed for them, and I'll have to find somewhere else... (As they say in the ads, nicer problems to have!
Incidentally, don't know about you, but I find the advice to treat antirrhinums as annuals is unnecessary (and wasteful). I've got 5 years out of them before they get too old and woody, and expect that now. The second and subsequent years often find them more prolific than the first (I love antirrhinums), and if you deadhead you'll get a succession of flowers from breaks down the remaining stems right through till first frosts. Mind you, I live at the bottom of the Ards Peninsula (that funny wee arm that sticks out of the righthand side of Northern Ireland) and we seem to benefit from a very mild microclimate - shielded (by the Mourne Mountains?) from the bad weather that sweeps in from the west - the weather here often seems to be better even than the north end of the Peninsula. But I find the antirrhinums will tolerate a fair degree of frost and occasional snow, sturdy little beggars. They don't look pretty over the winter, but they'll gather themselves up again in the spring and often flower earlier than annuals.