Yellow and Orange Cosmos Seeds (Cosmos sulphureus)

Cosmos sulphureus

Sulfur cosmos, yellow cosmos, orange cosmos: smaller and more compact than its cousin, bipinnate cosmos, it makes up for it with an incomparable intensity of color, spanning the full range of yellows, oranges, and coppery reds. Native to Mexico, where it grows spontaneously along roadsides, it has retained the exceptional hardiness of its origins.

Characteristics:

• Warm colors: a blend of bright yellow and orange on foliage that is more finely divided and delicate than that of pink cosmos.
• Compact habit: stockier than Cosmos bipinnatus, it stands better without staking.
• Long flowering period: from summer until the first frosts, without interruption.

Sowing advice:

• Exposure: sunny, essential for the intensity of the colors.
• Soil: ordinary, even poor and dry, but above all well-drained. Beware of a common misconception: soil that is too rich or heavily fertilized produces exuberant foliage and few flowers. Do not fertilize; it performs best in poor soil.
• Method: sow directly in place from April in mild climates, and after the frosts elsewhere, covering lightly. No soaking or stratification. Thin to 30 cm. See how to sow your seeds.

Care advice:

• Water moderately; once established, it tolerates drought well. Remove faded flowers to extend flowering until the frosts.

Beneficial combinations:

• Its warm tones contrast beautifully with the pinkish shades of white, pink, and red cosmos, and it pairs well with zinnia in a vibrant summer bed. See combining flowers in the vegetable garden.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its flat, wide-open flower heads are accessible to all pollinators, including small short-tongued species often overlooked by complex flowers.
• Its late flowering, continuing until the first frosts, makes it one of the season’s last food sources.
• Its seeds, left on the plant, feed goldfinches in late autumn.

Uses:

• Flower beds, borders, rock gardens, planters, and bouquets. Its cut flowers last well in a vase when picked at the stage of a well-colored bud.

Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few faded flowers to form their elongated, black needle-shaped seeds, then harvest them once they are dry. Cosmos also readily self-seeds from one year to the next. See how to store your seeds.

Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.

Bring an explosion of warm colors to your garden with these yellow and orange cosmos seeds.