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Cosmos

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  • Nope lost me 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    You'll get flowers eventually and if it's a mild  winter, you'll have them through to December.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • WAMSWAMS Posts: 1,960
    As others have said if your ground is fertile the plants will get big. Treat em mean, keep em keen 

    You shoul hopefully have masses of flowers but they will be a bit delayed. I had some right by heavily fertilised roses last year. Huge numbers of flowers by the end of autumn 
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    It's something that's bugged me for years, so I've done some research.

    Cosmos is one of those plants that will flower only when they get the right amount of daylight - the techie term is photoperiod.
    All varieties of Cosmos respond in the same way.
    If there are more than 14 hours of daylight when the seedlings form their first true leaves Cosmos won't flower until there are less than 14 hours of daylight, so seed needs to be sown at a time when the daylight hours are short - i.e. fairly early in Spring.
    The shorter days force the plant to go into flowering mode so will start blooming in early Summer.
    If there are 14+ hours of daylight at the seedling stage the plants will wait until Autumn when the daylight hours reduce to less than 14 hours, then they start flowering.

    I started some off in early Spring and they're flowering now.
    I started some more a bit later and they're just huge ferny plants with no signs of flower buds.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    I too am interested in this.
    This is from one of the seed companies.


    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • WAMSWAMS Posts: 1,960
    Yes... one of the seed companies mentions this on the packaging- you have to get in early or else you will have to wait. They are the first things I put on my propagator in January / Feb.
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    edited August 2023
    That’s great advice @Pete.8; I’ll remember it. Thanks.

    @sheila.bullock283v_8nFP1y, you’ll notice that your replies are just getting tacked onto the end so it is not clear who you’re responding to. It’s therefore a good idea to name the poster and it then feels more like you’re having a direct conversation with them as I did in the first paragraph. Put the @ symbol before typing their name and they’ll get a message saying they have a reply so long as they have adjusted settings to accept messages.

    I’ll try to explain in more detail how to upload a photo. When you start typing you’ll see a row of symbols above the typing box. Click the one two thirds of the way across that looks like a postcard. Click ‘choose files’. Click ‘photo library’. Click your chosen photo(s). A blue tick will appear on the photo. Click ‘add’ top right above the photo. Job done.

    However there are three problems you’ll probably encounter. 

    1. If you post multiple photos they’ll appear with no gap between them. It looks better on the page if you insert a gap using the return key. If this confuses you just post them with no gap. 

    2. This is really annoying - the photos will probably upload sideways or upside down. Just post then anyway and somebody will edit your photos for you. But if you want to get round the problem yourself before uploading the photos use the ‘edit’ tool to crop them a little. The photos will then upload correctly. If cropping pictures is a mystery to you just ignore this advice and let others turn your photos for you.

    3. If your photos are too large i.e. too high definition the system will reject them. This happens when I take photos on my camera but if I use the iPad to take photos it’s fine. If your photos are too large and you don’t know how to compress them, your best bet is to ask a passing 9 year old. They know about such things!
    Rutland, England
  • McRazzMcRazz Posts: 440
    edited August 2023
    I'm always late to the Cosmos party in the spring so mine are still mostly vegetative by early Aug, no different this year. 

    I had one reach 8 foot a couple of years ago and it too didn't flower until late August. Unfortunately an autumn storm snapped it before it reached its crescendo. I believe the variety was purity (a freebie from GW mag). 
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    C. Purity is always the last of my Cosmos to flower.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Will be putting autumn stuff in so they will have to come out
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