How To Grow Cosmos

22.07.2024 - 16:34 / gardenersworld.com

Cosmos are sun-loving plants with a long flowering season. They fill borders with a profusion of flowers, ranging in colour from white through to pink, red and orange, and they have masses of feathery foliage.

Shorter varieties look good in containers and all cosmos make fantastic cut flowers. Their simple open flowers are guaranteed to brighten up any garden well into autumn – and pollinators like them just as much as gardeners do.

How to grow cosmos

Grow cosmos in moist but free-draining soil in full sun. Deadhead to prolong flowering and lift the plant in autumn, after the first frosts. Save the seeds from spent blooms to sow the following season.

More on growing cosmos:

• Cosmos, canna and summer bedding container display
• Eight plants to grow with cosmos
• How to sow cosmos seed

Where to grow cosmos

Cosmos are native to Southern and Central America and therefore need to be planted in a warm, sunny spot. Soil should be free-draining.

How to plant cosmos

Sow cosmos seeds in early spring directly into the soil where you want your cosmos to grow, or into small pots or modules filled with free-draining seed compost. If growing in pots, pot on seedlings when they are large enough to handle. Plant out in late April/May after the danger of frost has passed.

Watch this video, below, to see Monty Don plant out cosmos for a long-summer display.

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