Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-126
Garden Cosmos
Cosmos bipinnatus
Garden cosmos blooms from midsummer through the first frost, filling the season that cool-season insectary flowers cannot cover, and it draws one of the broadest predator guilds around - parasitic wasps, lady beetles, lacewings, hoverflies and more, including tachinid flies and wasps that parasitize caterpillars specifically. It has no food or medicinal use; it earns its place purely as a cut flower and insect magnet. Oddly, it flowers best on poor, lean soil - rich ground just produces tall, floppy plants that need staking - and it self-sows so readily that letting it run in a rough corner costs nothing.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6–8.5
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 2–4 ft
- Mature spread
- 24–36 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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Alfalfa
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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