How to Grow Chocolate Cosmos

Chocolate cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguinea) is both nose and eye candy for your garden. When it's in full bloom, mature blossoms on long, slender stems look like candy kisses on a stick and fill the late afternoon with the sweet scent of vanilla tinged chocolate. New blossoms hug the foliage of the plant, nearly concealing it with their numbers! Add to that the sweet chocolate fragrance and you end up with something very special.

Although chocolate cosmos is endangered in the wild, transplants are easily found at most nurseries and garden centers in the spring. However, gardeners who are inexperienced in how to grow chocolate cosmos may overlook what seem to be small, messy tangles of miniature dahlia leaves, unaware that once established, prolific blossoms nearly conceal the foliage. Once in bloom, chocolate cosmos blossoms continuously throughout the summer into the first frosts of autumn.

If you're planning a gothic garden, chocolate cosmos is the plant for you. Sometimes referred to as black cosmos, dark maroon blossoms are so deep in color that they appear brown/black in late afternoon and evening.

A native of Mexico, the chocolate cosmos is a half-hardy perennial and a sun loving plant that is moderately drought tolerant.

You'll most easily grow chocolate cosmos from transplants purchased at your local garden center or nursery. Large clumps of established plants can also be divided to provide as many as three or four transplants.

Plant chocolate cosmos in organically rich, well-drained soil in a location that gets full sun. Keep the transplants moist until they established roots and you see the beginnings of some new growth.

In the fall, when foliage dies back, cut plants back to about two inches from the root and over-winter them in a frost-free area. Chocolate cosmos is hardy in zones 7-10. In these zones, you may opt to cover the plants with a cloche to protect them from danger of frost.

Hans is an author of Gardening Tips Tricks and Howto's. Hans writes and inspire you to try new ideas from her own experience.

Latest News


Garden Calendar
Seattle Post Intelligencer - 22 hours ago
ONGOING Lakewold Gardens: The 10-acre garden estate offers a haven of gardening delights, historical features, statuary, landscape architecture by Thomas ...
Garden calendar for Dec. 4 The Columbian
all 2 news articles

The last of the lawncare -- there's still time
Franklin Park Herald Journal, IL - 8 hours ago
... Boots Landscaping in Arlington Heights, "but there still are a couple of things to do." Cannon's suggestions range from lawn care to gardening tasks, ...

Gardening Texoma: Winter flowers for spring
KXII-TV, TX - 1 hour ago
This morning on Gardening Texoma, landscaping expert Jonathan Castro shows you what to do now in the winter time for beautiful spring flowers. ...

Botanical Garden Collects Used Plastic Pots
Lawn & Landscape, OH - Dec 3, 2008
Over the last five years, the program has further expanded to include collections from “green” industry businesses such as landscaping contractors, ...

Weekly waterings should help plants survive through winter
Las Vegas Review - Journal, NV - 8 hours ago
What advice can you give on winter care of a recently planted desert landscaping? I have lantana, Mexican bird of paradise, red fountain grass and others. ...

Gardeners love Christmastime
Santa Rosa Press Democrat, CA - 19 hours ago
Many of us have new gardeners in our lives. Our kids may have just bought a house and dislike the landscaping. Or they've been hearing about habitat gardens ...

Examiner.com

Native landscaping versus xeriscaping
Examiner.com - Dec 2, 2008
by Jaime Zaplatosch, Chicago Gardening Examiner Many people use the word "xeriscaping" liberally to refer to landscapes that don't require much or any water ...

Pride of Ownership '08: City, Rotary announce award winners
Ithaca Journal, NY - 8 hours ago
Minn's Garden Gate began as a practical barrier to deer but became artwork under the guidance of professor Nina Bassuk, landscape architect Laurene Gilbert ...

Weekly Vista

Garden stores have plenty to offer during winter season
Weekly Vista, AR - Nov 26, 2008
But, on the contrary, there are many things available at garden shops that are viable year-round. Village Garden and Landscaping At Village Garden and ...

Landscape company lands coveted Bog Oak accolade
Belfast Telegraph, United Kingdom - Nov 10, 2008
By Margaret Canning A Belfast landscape gardening business has won a coveted award for its work on a private garden. Cameron Landscapes won the Bog Oak ...

Resources


    Sorry there are no resources available at this time