Seed Saving - Cosmos

I have only been saving flower seeds in earnest, for about 4 years. Prior to that, though I would save some seeds, I was pretty higgledy-piggledy about it. I did not do it with any big passion or interest, just picked some of the easy ones to sow in spring and left it at that. 

At the same time as I was moving and shutting down my wee Nitty Gritty Greenhouse business, Floret Flower Farm started showing us detailed information about seed saving (mostly zinnias) and several of my favourite Instagram peeps were posting about seed saving flowers of all kinds. Man, I got hooked. 

The timing was right. As I would no longer be ordering seeds to sell at the greenhouse business, I would no longer have access to all those great seed varieties any longer... plus the savings, of course. Time to get real about saving seeds! Plus, it looked like fun.

So, here is the thing. Cosmos seeds are super easy to save. Dead simple. Really! 

1. In September, stop deadheading. 
2. Allow the seeds to go completely brown on the plant. 
3. Immature seeds will not give you flowers and may retain moisture that causes them to go mouldy. 
4. Do not hurry the process. 
5. Pick those prickly little seed balls, pop them in a container. 
6. Do not put the lid on the container right away. Allow them to sit in a warm spot to allow any lingering moisture to dry up. 
7. Pop a label on the container/envelope, and close up. 

That is it. The only trick is to let the seeds fully mature on the plant. 

Double Click bi-colour cosmos. 

I was kind of obsessed with the new Rubenza cosmos, last year. They would start off deep red but then fade to varying shades of papery pink. Stunning. 

Omg, can you get any prettier? 

Cosmos are the easiest annual flowers to grow. 

Throw the seeds in the ground in early spring. 

Make sure they are covered with soil.

Water once or twice a week, depending on how dry things are. 

Do not fertilise, they prefer less rich soils. 

They neither want nor need a lot of water, are very drought tolerant.  

Xanthos Cosmos? These are last year's flowers that I took seeds from. A few seemed to keep the yellow colouring.. though not sure if they are exactly the same. 

Here is something I learned about saving cosmos seeds this year, though. I was watching Kristin at Shifting Roots (a flower gardening blog in Saskatchewan) and she said that the flowers she had saved from seeds were all coming up in shades of pink. None of the specialty colours or kinds that she usually grows. I thought... oh oh. 

Sure enough. The cosmos that I started from my own saved seeds were all coming up either pale yellow or some kinda pink. No doubles, no apricots, no reds that fade to pink. 

The white cosmos are over 4 feet tall, with a few salmon coloured ones peeking through them. 

I am unsure about the white ones. I am fairly certain these were all from new, purchased seeds. Cannot remember. I will save their seeds this year and let you know next year ; )  

The saved seeds were tossed into the kale and onion beds... all are pink. 

The cosmos in the raised veggie beds were all from saved seeds... They are all pink, with some yellow ones here and there. 

So... some of the yellow flowers seem to stay true, everything else reverted to pink. If you like pink, as I do, it is not a problem. If you are looking for the new varieties, the unusual shades, double clicks, etc... you will want to buy the seeds. 

I used to save my seeds in those small coin/seed envelopes. I no longer do that. 

I now put them into these gorgeous spice jars that I label with my really old Dymo Label Maker and clear tape. Love that Dymo, it just keeps on going, year after year.  

When I put seeds in the little envelopes, I like to bougie the packets up with a floral stamp and my little letter stamps. Make it feel homemade so folks know that it was gifted with love. 

I can fit a whole lotta seeds in these jars, or even just snap off a stem or two of seed pods and pop them into the jar to deal with in spring. I love the way they look, too. I now only use the envelopes when I am gifting seeds to friends and neighbours. 

As an Amazon Associate, if you were to buy something through one of my links, I may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support! 

Happy Seed Saving ~ Tanja