Growing cosmos: how to get an unpretentious flower in your garden
Growing cosmos even for inexperienced growers will be more fun than hassle. The plant is very viable and resistant. He does not care about the sun, rain, or poor soil. Despite the fact that most species of cosmos are annuals, you do not need to worry about planting them annually. Having once sowed seeds in a flower bed, the kosmeya takes care of the reproduction itself. Achenes that have fallen to the ground in autumn actively sprout next spring. It remains only to thin out self-seeding and a simple but graceful beauty will decorate the flower bed again. What do you need to know about how to plant and care for cosmos?
Growing cosmos: how a flower multiplies
Like all annuals, kosmeya reproduces by seeds. They retain their germination capacity for up to 3 years and almost all germinate, and quickly. The advantage of the crop is that the seeds can be sown directly into open ground. The main thing is to wait for the soil to warm up - then the seedlings will appear in a week or two.
Sowing under winter also gives a good result. However, in this case, it is not worth delaying until frost, you need to do this no later than October. The seeds should fall into the still warm soil. For example, this happens after the end of flowering, when the kosmeya sows itself. Kosmeya grows best on loose and nutritious soil, where it is easier for seedlings to break through.
The seedling method can also be used. It will bring the flowering of the bushes closer by a month. When sown directly on a flower bed, flowering occurs only in the middle of summer. But the bushes grown by seedlings will bloom in June. The transplant of kosmeya tolerates painlessly, and you can sow it on seedlings in mid-spring, in order to plant it in the garden in May.
As a result of self-seeding, new plants retain all their parental characteristics.
Perennial species of cosmos can also be propagated by division. These include Chocolate kosmeya.
If you have purchased different varieties of cosme, plant them separately. Inflorescences are prone to cross-pollination and the original plants can be lost. If you want to grow several different varieties, you can cheat. To do this, simply delimit the varieties of cosme with other flowers, these are canna, delphiniums, goldenrod other.
How to care for cosmos in the garden
Cosmeia care is minimal and includes:
- Timely weeding in the flower bed so that they do not drown out the flowers.
- Regular watering, especially of young plants.
- If the soil is poor, you can feed it with a liquid mineral complex a couple of times over the summer.
You can prolong flowering by periodically cutting off faded inflorescences. For the rest, the cultivation of cosmos does not require anything else. It remains only to remove dry remains of vegetation in the spring and wait for new shoots.