Cosmos... sun on earth!

Cosmos sulphureus (bolted and dwarfed!)

I have bought Cosmos seed packets from Swallowtail Garden Seeds. I think they operate from California and have their seed bank there. I have had successes and failures in growing the Cosmos from the seeds I bought. I have bought so many other seeds from them and I like their hassle-free service and cheaper quality seeds. I have seeds from the year 2008 (I keep the seeds refrigerated), that still germinates but unfortunately the plants bolts! I don't think the seeds themselves have problem, but I feel the seeds are not suited to extreme tropical heat and humidity. Although Cosmos thrives in hot weather, but probably not for the seeds harvested from temperate climates. I think they have their bio-clocks programmed for the seasons their predecessors grew in. The seedlings will stay 6" tall and start flowering a five cents coin size flower. It really makes me annoyed. I have tried pinching off the buds to keep the plant growing, but the delay is only temporary. They all eventually flower and die... the sun on earth disappears.

Amazing orange Cosmos as cut flowers

Nevertheless, not all Cosmos seeds actually do this. Some had grown to 3ft high and flowered abundantly and self-seeded until my mom killed the plants by over-fertilizing. She loved the flowers and thought that Cosmos needs more fertilizers to flower profusely. I think they have been genetically programmed to flower profusely, without anything much fed to them!

Yellow Cosmos 4ft High with saucer like flowers

One day as I was driving around my neighbourhood, I came across a Cosmos "shrub" outside someone's house. Obviously, I pulled over my car and was really excited to see beautiful yellow Cosmos flowers, so bright and moving side to side blown by the wind, like some Monarch butterflies just congregated on a tree. I called out the owner, but no one was around (a bit nervous though). So I plucked some dried seeds and just said "thank you" loudly by the gate and drove off. That seed lied in a packet for some weeks before I found the right place for it. The mother plant was probably 2 ft high, but my Cosmos grew into a 4 ft giant. I overdosed guano fertilizers as the Cosmos shared a pot with the Night-flowering Jasmine a.k.a. Nycthantes arbor-tristis (for such a beautifully named flower deserves a blog entry on its own). I was so upset, because generally Cosmos will start flowering within 6 weeks and are typically thin plants. My Cosmos is about 1" thick plant and had no signs of flower buds above 3 ft high plant!!

Well, that upset was balanced by a delightful surprise after I came back ten days later from a climbing trip. The plant has borne yellow flowers of 3" in size, almost twice the size of its mother plant's flower. I felt so happy and contented and I adore the giant! The mosquito bees love the flowers and so do I!! They busily hum and bum around the stamens looking for whatever they need...

"Giant" Cosmos (accidentally!)

Semi-double (?) Cosmos from another "giant" plant

The best part is that the flowers form a downside cup as the sun sets. The flowers are actually opened until the last streak of sunlight! I have never seen this behaviour on the Cosmos flowers I have had. The next day, when the sun rises, the flowers will
slowly open and follow the sun's path and repeat the same behaviour again. They are a joy to watch, especially their peculiar behaviour, which I have never seen or read about specifically with Cosmos!

The cupped "giant" Cosmos at night, like upside tulips!

This blooming and "withering" takes place about 3 full nights until the petals fall off and seed head becomes visible.  Now, I am waiting for the seeds to mature and dry out. I have deadheaded the side flowers and only left the first top blooms to form seed. This I believe is the most viable and strongest seed that could possibly repeat the same growth pattern of the Cosmos. I shall put these for test. I also have collected seeds from the orange Cosmos that I bought as 1 ft potted plant. I want to test the seeds with some guano fertilizer in a large pot and see how that turns out.

Potted 1ft orange Cosmos (at the back)

My other Cosmos bipinnatus seeds from Swallowtail have never been a joy. I bought the seeds while being influenced by seed shopping madness! I am a lot more controlled now. But I keep trying to grow the seeds. It's nothing wrong with the seeds, perhaps just not suited to our weather or possibly my timing of sowing the seeds. Maybe one fine month, the weather will help them to form the "first" progeny that grows to suit Malaysian maritime weather... genetically suited! Anything is possible in this mad climate era!

Orange Cosmos seeds