This is a blog post on growing and harvesting cosmos flowers. All varieties of cosmos flowers are good for natural printing. Different varieties yield different colors. I am a big fan of natural printing at the moment, I started growing cosmos flowers after looking at what cosmos sulfurous flowers can do. It can be pressed, dried, dyed, and printed as well.
Growing and harvesting Cosmos flowers
Growing cosmos is normally from scratch normally by seed. It is available to buy online. I buy my seeds from Premier seeds direct and their seeds germinate most of the time. Alternatively is to buy cosmos plants from garden centers and florists. Cosmos grows annually. So it means that one will have to sow seeds every year come springtime.
They are many varieties to grow some can grow quite tall up to 2 meters. Cosmos sulphureus don’t grow very tall. The dark pink color flowers produce blue color when printed. Whereas the pink flowers produce pale grey colors. Different varieties do produce different colors.
Come March time sow the seeds under cover. Plant out when the risk of frost is over. It is possible to sow the seeds outdoors when the risk of frost is over. Sow the seeds till May so as to give it time to grow and produce flowers. Grow them in sunny and water regularly and it’s good to go. Do feed the cosmos plants with some fish and bone so that it produces plenty of flowers.
When the flowers are in full bloom it is ready to harvest. Harvest the flowers regularly so that the plant can produce more flowers. Press or dry the flowers so that the shelf life extends.
Thank you for reading and dropping by. Do have a look at other tips on growing dye plants. Like growing dyer’s chamomile and marigold.
