Introduction to the Cosmos

We were on our way to the Tour de Lavender in Washington in 2014 when we stopped briefly in Shoshone, Wyoming, for gas and other essentials. I was magnetically drawn to the gorgeous pink blooms at a rest stop parking lot and had great difficulty pulling my camera away from them. We had a tough schedule to keep, so on we drove, and I forgot about the late summer pretty pink flowers until the next year. After all, the Tour de Lavender is enough to make anyone forget about parking lot flowers, right?






I did make a poster and a greeting card of my favorite cosmos shot.


We spent a few early autumn days at Yellowstone the following year, and there was another batch of those pink beauties again at that same rest stop in Shoshone! We stopped and took more photos. This time, I did some research to find out what they were and was delighted to learn they fit in nicely with xeriscaping, plus they are late season bloomers, a very welcome treat in a residential front yard-turned garden.

I had seen cosmos before at weddings and in various gardens, but I never really noticed them until the first time I saw them in Shoshone. I was determined to grow my own.


I found some seeds online, and the advertisement photos that caught my attention were even prettier than the Wyoming flowers I'd seen. I ordered some. Planted them. The next year, I had my very own cosmos flowers!






The next year, I ordered more seeds, which I thought were even more exotic than the first batch.






Now my cosmos are self-seeding, and I don't have to buy seeds anymore. But every time I think I've seen the most beautiful cosmos, I fall in love with another new (to me) variety.






My garden is no different. Each year, I think I've seen the most beautiful cosmos ever grown, and the next year, another one knocks my socks off.

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