A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 My cosmos, any ideas?

Okay, so I'm eating cake....a while ago someone was asking why there cosmos hadn't started to flower.....and I of course said, don't worry they will, they may not all bloom at the same time, etc, etc.....Told her mine weren't blooming yet either--this was weeks ago....

Well.....my cosmos are almost as tall as me now...and I'm 5'10"....I'd say they are about 5 feet tall......healthy looking, bushy plants....really thick stems on them....nice to look at, but not one bud or anything....the ones I planted in moms yard are the same way...I'm stumped.....I grew them from Burpee seeds, not just some really cheap unknown brand......

The growing season is almost over really and last year mine were blooming way before now from seed, all throughout the summer.....this is the weirdest thing this year......

Any ideas why they haven't produced buds, yet are healthy looking? Maybe that I used miracle grow on them several times when they were around a foot tall? I think I read somewhere that when you do that it will stop them from producing so many buds....... Anyone else ever have this problem?

Loz,
You probably have some type of too much nitrogen in the soil??? Not sure what?
Probably the Miracle Grow, that's usually a high first number???????????
Which makes beautiful green lush growth!!!

Find some kind of fertilizer *Mine is Shultz Plus 10~60~10* and the fert should have some sort of high MIDDLE NUMBER, that'll give the plants some good stuff for blooms..........

I might have said, earlier in the season an organic fertilizer like Alfafa Meal, Bone Meal, Kelp, etc, for slower but good blooms stuff...

And do foliar feeds with the fert. too, that way, it'll get a direct feed to the leaves with the short season coming ahead...

Weezie

Loz, I have the same problem, and everything around them is blooming beautiful and everyone asks what that huge plant is and theres not a single bud and I've had to tie them up three times with 6 foot fenceposts. I think when I started my seeds this spring, I just threw a few seeds in a flat and I think they were a free packet from Burpee too. If theres nothing before frost I am going to email them.

Shamarian......ah, I'm not the only one out there then....whew, I don't feel bad....my poor mom keeps asking me when they are going to bloom....and you know, come to think of it...hers weren't fertilized with anything at all and they haven't budded or anything......so it musn't be from using my miracle grow since I never used it on hers.....Hey, the foliage sure looks nice huh?LOL I have about 6 of these big monstrosities in my yard, and they are huge and take up a ton of room.....I haven't even staked them at all the stalk coming out of the ground is so big and strong......Maybe I'll email burpee too at the end of summer if nothing happens, I wonder how many people out there bought burpee cosmos seeds and have huge monstrous looking plants right now without flowers.....

Weezie---I'm mad, I really thought I was on the right track with the fertilizer thing, but since I didn't do moms with it, and I know she didn't then it must be the seeds.....they are in full sun like they should be.....and I love cosmos so much, I'm mad that these haven't bloomed....I like to take cut flowers from them, last year I only had one spectacular cosmos.....this year with so many planted I thought I'd be cutting flowers all summer.....lol Just my luck!

What did all of you use as soil,
or stuff you put in your soil????

If you put a bagged soil, check it,
it may have had fertilizer in it already...
some bagged soils come that way now...

Or if you put some kind of manure in it,
that'll do the same thing because it contains
high amounts of nitrogen....

Or do you have sweetpeas growing near them?
They'll produce nitrogen INTO the soil and
have same effect.????

Just some possibilities??

Weezie

It may have to do with the kind of cosmos, too. I planted two different types in my yard. One type started blooming a month ago at about three feet tall. The others, from a different company, are over six feet tall and just making buds now. I did not use Miracle Gro on either kind, but I did mix peat humus into the soil last spring.

Woo hoo.....I was outside this morning and two of my non blooming cosmos are budding!!! Finally! I was getting really worried about them.....the ones I gave mom still aren't, but maybe they will soon.....hopefully.....

Weezie, I never thought of the soil having the fertilizer.....I didn't use miracle grow soil but I did use a different kind from walmart that had some in it, and extended food release things...it's hard to find anything without any in it, now that I think of it....most potting soil has some fertilizer mixed in.

One of my cosmos is almost as tall as me, and I'm tall....lol Last year they never got so huge!

loz. My cosmos have been in bloom for at least 6weeks now, trouble is they are about half as tall as last year, they are only about 18ins tall. any suggestions?

Hi Doreen ......the strange thing with this cosmos mystery is that I bought a 6 pack of cosmos from a nursery in spring, well they are all blooming and looking fine, but they aren't very tall...probably about 18-24 inches....the one's I grew from seed that are just now budding are the same type of cosmos.....so I'm confused as to why the ones I grew myself got so tall(5-6 ft).....Come to think of it, after I planted the nursery ones I watered them with miracle grow a few times--and it didn't seem to make them get leafier or taller....Last year I planted one from wildflower seed in my garden and it got really tall and flowered beautifully, much better than any of the ones from this year.....

The whole cosmos thing has me confused to tell you the truth.....I don't know why they've grown so differently this year and last year.....

I knew if I searched hard enough I would find this thread. Today, on the last weekend of September, my giant cosmos plants that I planted in early May have finally bloomed! I don't know why it took them so long, but better late than never!

Tony, I'm with you....I have a couple that are just now blooming.....lol They were so slow this year......and my moms finally started to bloom too.......the one she has left(3 of them were knocked down with the remnants of frances) is literally taller than me, and I'm 5'10".....it's about 6"2'.......couldn't believe how huge it was.....glad yours is blooming!

Cosmos are rampant in our area - everywhere you look they're waving in the breeze. Some are dying off and you can dead head 'em.

Guess you got a lot of rain this summer?

Some varieties of cosmos are short day bloomer like seashells and phychic and others bloom quick like the dwarf type sonata. To keep short day bloomers from getting sooootall, its best to sow them later in the season. They will still bloom at the same time, just shorter. hopes this helps.

Hi as I have already mentioned I am new at gardening, however I did hear on the radio that
there are two components to growing flowering
plants; one is fertilizer for the roots -nitrogen?. the second is fetizlizer? for the foliage and flowers. It seems that many people are fertilizing in a way that the roots are getting too much and therefore all the energy is going into growing roots and little to none going into setting buds.
I hope this helps.
Up here in Ontario, we can also buy 30Litre bags
of 'organic' top soil; perhaps this is the kind you could look for. We also have triple mix which is really good.
IN LOVE AND LIGHT