Cosmos

Where it grows

Cosmos bipinnatus is native to scrubby roadsides and pine-oak forest clearings in central Mexico; the chocolate cosmos, C. atrosanguineus, comes from the same region but is essentially extinct in the wild and survives only in cultivation. Garden cosmos has naturalised across the United States and southern Europe.

How to recognise it

Tall, branching plants one to two metres high with finely divided, almost ferny foliage. The single composite flowers sit on long, wiry stems, each with eight broad notched ray florets around a yellow disc and a flower diameter of five to ten centimetres. The chocolate cosmos has deep maroon flowers smelling distinctly of cocoa.

Garden & cultural uses

Cosmos thrives on poor soil — over-fed plants make leaves at the expense of flowers — and self-seeds reliably. Modern series such as Sonata and Apollo offer dwarf plants for containers, while the Double Click and Cupcake forms produce ruffled or fused blooms. The flower is a magnet for hoverflies and small bees.

In etymology

Spanish missionaries in Mexico saw the symmetry of the eight-petalled flowers and named them kosmos, the Greek for ordered harmony — the same root behind English cosmos.