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Cosmos 'Seashells Mixed' now flowering

balcony

By balcony

17 comments


Cosmos ‘Seashells Mixed’ now flowering

The plants of Cosmos ‘Seashells Mixed’ are now beginning flowering in my Plot 12A allotment! :-)) One plant, a lovely pink with fluted petals, has been in flower for a couple of weeks now but I don’t think I’ve taken a photo of it, on its own at least, before today.

The seeds came free with a gardening newspaper I occasionally buy. I hadn’t bought it in a long time but when I walked past the magazine section of the supermarket where my wife works I couldn’t help but notice the packet of seeds offered free on the paper. I’m not usually one for impulse buying but on this occasion I gave in – I’m so glad I did as well!

They were sown in the greenhouse in June & quickly germinated & within a month or so I was planting them outside in my allotment, at the end of July. This first week of September they are beginning to flower. :-)) One plant has had open flowers on it for at least a week now. The other plants are also flowering now & I’ve taken a few photos which I’m adding to this blog.

‘Cosmos Seashells Mixed’ sown in greenhouse:

Within a week they had germinated!

Just over a week later I pricked them out:

I also have a different variety of Cosmos ‘Sensations Mixed’ which are growing, & flowering, both in Gerry’s allotment & in mine. On my plot they are planted far apart. I hope they don’t cross pollinate as I would love to save some of the seeds from this variety, ‘Seashells Mixed’, for next year.

Cosmos ‘Sensations Mixed’ at top of Gerry’s allotment:

July

Cosmos ‘Seashells Mixed’ now planted out on my allotment, Plot 12A:

Some photos of these plants taken during August:

This is the 1st photo I took at the beginning of August:

Here they are a little later:

Another week or two has gone by since the photo above:

Near the end of August:

September

First flowers beginning to show

This plant had actually been flowering already for a couple of weeks before I took this photo:

A couple of close ups:

Pink

White

A last look at the Cosmos ‘Sensation’ plants flowering at the top of my plot to finish with:

Hope you’ve enjoyed this blog.

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Previous post: Amaryllis flowering in September

Next post: The Summer Allotments (June 2012)



Comments

 

cosmos are beautiful, mine didnt do at all well this year.

7 Sep, 2012

 

These are lovely. Mine were a great disappointment and only a couple looked like yours - the rest had their petals rolled round into individual little tubes.I wasn't sure if they were meant to be like that.

7 Sep, 2012

 

Nice to see you have some lovely flowers on them now. My seeds didn't germinate this year :o(

7 Sep, 2012

 

Stiki, mine aren't really flowering much - at present at least - they have made loads of growth but few flowers. Near our shed there are some self-sown Cosmos & they are flowering much better than the ones I sowed this year! You can see that if you look at the photos again, especially the ones dated 1st September. Even today they look very much the same.

Steragram, I've no idea if they should be like that, I suspect not. Do they look as if they have been sown/glued together? There are some insects that do this as it serves them as protection for predators. If not then it's probably because of the "summer" we have just had! This variety, I'm growing/blogging about, has fluted petals, that is, they are half curved, which gives them a different look to the usual flat petals of the rest of the Cosmos varieties.

7 Sep, 2012

 

probably my fault as i went on holiday for 10 days just at the wrong time when the seeds were really just germinating.

i gave up and bought a few instead this year!

7 Sep, 2012

 

It's a shame that happened! :-(( Did you know you can sow them several times in a year to get staggered flowering?

9 Sep, 2012

 

no i didnt think of that! should have been more persistent shouldnt i!!

looks as if i have a few seed heads ready for next year though!!!

9 Sep, 2012

 

Your flowers are like the ones on the seed packet I had, Balcony, and a few of my flowers were like that. The others were like little tubes that never unrolled, but it was so consistent that I'd be surprised if it was insect damage.
But the whole batch was miserable, so write it off as one more effect of the "summer"

9 Sep, 2012

 

I don't understand what could have happened to your Cosmos plants, Steragram, I have self-sown seedling blooming from seeds that fell into the ground from last year as well as 2 different varieties, planted at different times, that are doing fine. I've also seen other plants on another allotment I pass every time I enter the allotments field & they also look alright. I pass at least one garden with Cosmos growing in it on my way to town/allotment & they also seem to be normal.

I just hope you have better luck next year.

11 Sep, 2012

 

thank you - it was only some of the Seashells that had the rolled petals.

11 Sep, 2012

 

Strange as it might seem I think I saw one flower on my Cosmos 'Seashells' that reminded me of how you describe yours. It too had rolled up petals but truth to say I didn't go up & have a closer look at the flower in question as I was passing by with a 10lr watering can in each hand!

It may be normal in this variety of Cosmos, I don't know yet. Nevertheless I will keep an eye on the flowers as they open & see if there are any more like it.

12 Sep, 2012

 

Let me know if you see more of them!

13 Sep, 2012

 

It may be the "Trademark" of this particular variety as a few more flowers have opened since I last posted & the petal seem to start off pretty rolled up & open up somewhat as they age. I'll see if I can remember to take a few photos of individual flowers - something I don't often do with smaller flowers.

16 Sep, 2012

 

Those are so pretty :o)

17 Sep, 2012

 

They are pretty when they unroll, but disappointing when they don't.

17 Sep, 2012

 

I plant cosmos each year, an absolute favourite but also fewer flowers this time.

18 Sep, 2012

 

For some reason I don't understand, the Cosmos 'Sensation Mixed' have made very big plants but with few flowers. I don't remember now if I put horse manure in this bed at the time I dug it over - I'll have to have a look back through all my photos from the beginning of making up this plot. I know where the Cosmos 'Seashells Mixed' are growing, about 1/2 way along the plot, I did put in manure but these plants were put out very much later than the others.

19 Sep, 2012

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