Cosmos bipinnatus Xanthos - Garden Cosmos

The Cosmos bipinnatus 'Xanthos' is a new variety with a compact habit and absolutely delightful pastel yellow flowers, never before seen in the compact varieties available in the market. This annual plant provides abundant flowering for 6 months, until autumn, even in poor and relatively dry soil. Its flowers are carried on sturdy and branched stems, adorned with dark green fennel-like foliage. This plant, which can fit anywhere, will bring a lot of charm and poetry to the late season, in borders, among perennials, and even in containers.

The 'Xanthos' Cosmos is one of the many cultivars of this well-deserved popular annual known as Cosmos bipinnatus. Related to Dahlias, Cosmos belong to the family Asteraceae. They have the characteristic inflorescence in a head, which we call a flower. 'Xanthos' has particularly fine foliage, described as pinnatisect, reminiscent of fennel, and it is slightly and pleasantly scented. This compact variety quickly forms a dense and bushy clump 60 cm (24in) in height, and 40 cm (16in) in width. The early flowering begins in May and lasts until October, only ceasing with the first frost. The heads measure 6 cm (2in) in diameter and are composed of a crown of plicate petals in a very pale yellow, warmed by a slightly deeper yellow at the center of the petals. The center of the head is made up of a small golden disk that turns brown after pollination. The flowers attract many insects and butterflies, including the Monarch.

Capable of filling a container alone from spring until frost, or colonizing a slope, a bed, the 'Xanthos' Cosmos offers an abundance of single flowers with childlike patterns, in an extremely bright colour. Cosmos are flowers made for beginners, almost impossible to fail. These plants bring density to borders and lightness to the heavier flowering of perennials, without succumbing to bad weather. This lovely Xanthos variety can be used in pots on the terrace or balcony, but also in countryside settings, mixed with marigolds and calendulas, cornflowers and grasses like Stipa tenuifolia, white gauras, or among perennials that love the sun as much as it does, bidens and rudbeckias. Its flowers have a very good vase life.

Note: Please be advised that our young plug plants are professional products intended for experienced gardeners; upon receipt, transplant and store them under cover (veranda, greenhouse, cold frame) at a temperature above 14°C (57.2°F) for a few weeks before being placed outdoors once the risk of frost has definitively passed.