Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Description:

Upright and eye-catching, this variety is a great way to add bright pops of color to borders, beds or cut flower arrangements; bright orange blooms with hints of lemon sit atop of deep green, ferny foliage; easy to grow, requiring little to no maintenance

Ornamental Features

Sunset Orange Cosmos features showy orange daisy flowers with lemon yellow overtones at the ends of the stems from early summer to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its ferny leaves remain dark green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Sunset Orange Cosmos is an herbaceous annual with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its relatively fine texture sets it apart from other garden plants with less refined foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and may require the occasional pruning to look its best. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Sunset Orange Cosmos is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Sunset Orange Cosmos will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity extending to 3 feet tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 10 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. This fast-growing annual will normally live for one full growing season, needing replacement the following year.

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America. It can be propagated by cuttings; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Sunset Orange Cosmos is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.