Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sensation'
Cosmos
bipinnatus
'Sensation'
Upright, bushy annual with finely divided foliage and single pink flowers. Very useful for late summer and early autumn displays, and if you deadhead it will keep going till the first frosts. Because of its height it makes a light but useful screen (you can just see a parked car through the foliage in the top photo). Easy and undemanding.
A little goes a long way with Cosmos bipinnatus - just one of them can take up a surprising amount of space - so if you've got mixed planting, you need to plan where they'll go if you don't want other plants in the display to be swamped out (at least they're only annuals, though).
Quite attractive to bees, hoverflies and butterflies so useful for late foragers.
Flowers in summer and autumn.
Habit - upright and bushy. H: 1.5m S: 50cm-1m
Stems - round, green, straight.
Leaves - delicate-looking, very finely divided and feathery, slightly reminiscent of carrot foliage. Mid-green.
Flowers - open, cup-shaped, 7-8 petals, in shades from light to dark pink and with yellow centres, 6-10cm across. Flowers are borne on long sinuous stems and are good for cutting.
Full sun.
Moist but free draining, moderately fertile. Acid, alkaline or neutral.
Half hardy.
Deadhead to prolong flowering.
Generally pest free but may be prone to grey moulds.
Sow seed outside in late spring or start indoors a little earlier.
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