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cosmos seed colours
i bought a white cosmos last year and saved the seed for this year, after a few deaths, a few zigzag stemmed and some growing just into a right angle i ended up with eight usable plants, they are planted out in the garden and are growing happily two have just flowered and they are pink , is this what is meant by 'seeds not growing true'? i was to be honest looking forward to my 'white' cosmos as i have planted them next to my coloured plants 
most have two flower buds on them should i be pinching these buds out before flowering to encourage more flower buds or not?
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I think the genes for pink are dominant sanjy. I tried that with the same result
In the sticks near Peterborough
arh thanks nut, really wanted to have white ones
so how do the seed companies get to have white plants then?
Genetics beyond me sanjy
But it doesn't always work for the seed companies. I've had a few surprises
In the sticks near Peterborough
They grow them in isolation Sanjy, so that they are only pollinated by other white ones, something we can't do at home because of those naughty bees!
However, I've had the odd pink and pink-edged ones grow from commercial 'white' seeds.
of course i forgot about the bee factor
so i'm guessing any seed collected from my garden will possibly not be the same colour as parent plant it came from as the bees have been off shaking their booty in other coloured flowers?
Yes
In the sticks near Peterborough
got it now nut lol
Sanjy
thanks also bobthegardener sorry i missed you out.
I tried to grow the double cosmos this year (pink and white). They both had relatively poor, slow germination but the pinks were much better than the white - Nuts explanation of gene dominance probably explains this.
I was so disappointed at the germination of both of them I bought a packet of emergency regular single cosmos & sowed all 3 varieties in the nursery bed about 6 weeks ago.
Germination was - one pathetic twisted white double, about 4 small pink doubles and a whole row of healthy, large, already-pinched-back-twice singles. Guess I'll be sticking to the singles in future.