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cosmos

Cosmos sulphureus

In Our Garden

Bright Lights Cosmos
Cosmos sulphureus
3-4 ft. Hardy Annual/Reseeding

Sunset orange, semidouble flowers with an occasional burnt-red color. Profuse early bloomer.

Cultivation

Growing Tips:
Cosmos do well in areas with full sun. They need a moderate amount of water and do best in soils that are well-drained and not too rich.

Cosmos are hardy and easy-to-grow, and produce daily-like blossoms from mid-summer through fall.

Did You Know

Cosmos grow quickly, and some varieties can reach heights of up to six feet. Big Blooms are two to six inches across. Cosmos are best planted at the back of a flower garden, and with a little care and attention can produce long-lasting flowers.

 

Pest Management

Don't let these creepy crawlers get anywhere near your cosmos!

• Aphids
  Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects with long, slender mouth parts that they use to pierce stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts and suck out plant fluids. Almost every plant has one or more aphid species that occasionally feeds on it. Many aphid species are difficult to distinguish; however, identification to species is not necessary to control them in most situations.
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• Thrips
  Thrips, order Thysanoptera, are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings. They feed by puncturing their host and sucking out the cell contents. Certain thrips species are beneficial predators that feed only on mites and other insects. Beneficial species include black hunter thrips and the sixspotted thrips. Pest species (often in the family Thripidae) are plant feeders that scar leaf, flower, or fruit surfaces or distort plant parts. Other species of thrips feed on fungal spores and pollen and are innocuous.
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• True bugs
  True bugs usually have thickened forewings with membranous tips. When they rest, the dissimilar parts of their folded wings overlap. Most true bugs can be recognized by the characteristic triangle or X-shape on the back formed by their folded wings. True bugs have sucking mouthparts, which on plant-feeding species point downward, perpendicular to the plane of the insect's body. Common true bugs are lace bugs (tingids), boxelder bugs, ash plant bugs, lygus bugs, stink bugs, and chinch and false chinch bugs.
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