RARE Cosmos seeds needing responsible homes

[Ezeiza]

Your comments are most interesting in that my losses were related to hot weather. They survived our cool (practically frost free where they were) winters but the long summer affected them adversely even tho they were not in direct sunshine for most of the day.

[Lesley Cox]

Mine have germinated well too, including the 2 seeds I managed to harvest from the NZ form itself, using the commercial clone as pollen donor.
Incidentally, the pot which housed the NZ plant, and 2 plants of the commercial clone were kept in a greenhouse last winter, which got down to -7C. The NZ plant is up and looking fine, but the other 2 were killed.

We're tough down here Anne.

[Lesley Cox]

In fact, I agree with Alberto, that my own occasional losses of the Cosmos have been related to drought rather than cold. I lost a big potted one in the summer of 2009/10 because I didn't realize it was missing on the hosing I was doing, being a little further out of range than the plant in front of it. The thin tubers simply shrivelled up and couldn't be revived. A couple planted out had previously died in summer dry periods.

[Magua]

Hi, all,

I just ran into this thread today, so pardon the lateness. I've always thought that there must be some variation and/or clones based on at least one other origin plant of the species, and I'm happy to hear that there could be. Starting unusual/rare/etc. seeds has been a hobby of mine too, so if there are seeds available for me to try to start, I would be more than happy to spread any resulting seeds to others to revive the species. There is also a university botanical garden (University of British Columbia) nearby and another botanical garden (VanDusen Botanical Garden) nearby that would probably know a lot more about what to do with them in terms of propagating the species, or even return it to the wild someday. I can perhaps donate a seedling/plant or two (depending on the results) to them to take care of, and maybe they can confirm their genetic identity.

It should be hardy here too. A website from just across the border (around Seattle, USA) seems to indicate that they would be able to survive without protection here, though a bit more care might be prudent until I'm sure.

So exciting to hear the species might not be extinct!

                                               Rene (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

[Maggi Young]

Welcome Rene!
Clubs and societies like SRGC and NARGS can do a lot to help keep old heritage or heirloom plants in cultivation.... it's one of the things having dedicated members around the world is a real advantage for!

[Lesley Cox]

Welcome to the Forum Rene. I'm always interested in members who grow seeds, being totally addicted to them myself. At present I have no seed available (the plants are just coming through now) but there will surely be some in the late summer. If you PM me say in December, and send your postal address I can probably send something.

In fact, there now seem to be a number of self-fertile clones about or clones which will happily cross pollinate with others. One of the former has been registered as a PVR plant, in NZ as 'Pinot Noir.' I haven't come across this yet but recently bought another called 'Coco Chanel.' It seems there will be a few named forms available in time. This is fine I guess but I prefer to raise seed from my own and a friend's plants (she lives nearby and doesn't sow much now being in her mid 80s) because this ensures genetic diversity. I firmly believe that plants which are persistently raised from tissue culture gradually weaken. Another Forumist (Jandals) was telling me a few days ago that a very large quantity of fertile seed had been made available from a Dunedin source, to Jellito's in Germany, and we know that Thompson and Morgan in the UK have material they are working with, so I think the plant's future will be quite secure.

I like the fact that our seed raised plants show quite a lot of variation, smaller or larger flowers, redder or blacker but all with the distinctive bitter chocolate scent.

[Magua]

Thank you for the welcomes. Sorry I haven't been back since October. Busy putting our little community garden plot to sleep for the winter and way too many other things.

I've always had the suspicion that tissue culture must degrade slowly with time too, but grape vines seem to be doing just fine by cloning so far, so I am hoping that is not the case. (We have our up and coming wine country in the interior of the province here.) Still, one reason genetic diversity exists is that it prevents existing species from succumbing to changing climates, new diseases, and so on, so clones aren't equipped to deal with changes.

It's good to hear that there is some effort to try to revive the species once again. It's a shame to have such a special species to be extinct in the wild (not that any other species wouldn't be missed too). Somehow I haven't dealt with Jellito's yet. T&M, of course, is a staple source , especially since they've established a branch in Canada now. And, yes, I'm addicted to growing from seed too. I've become our community garden's de facto volunteer stock seed propagator and have many, many more seeds that I really have time to start (or space for).

[fleurbleue]

Anne, plants grown from your seeds and kept in a cold frame and protected, show little new leaves ; hope they flower next summer 

[annew]

Well done, Nicole. I hope they grow on well for you.

[Lesley Cox]

A timely reminder to me that I must put my own little ones under cover now as we've already had a couple of very light frosts. Not enough to damage my few dahlias but enough to burn the leaves of the courgettes. Must get JW's red dahlia away too. I stupidly sowed some old Cosmos seed in February thinking they may be TOO old by the coming spring but they all germinated within a week so I have seedlings which will need intensive care through the winter, which I didn't mean to.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Goes to show that they may last a lot better than you thought.    I've always regarded the normal types of Cosmos as indefinite storage.  I've definitely sown some years later and had them come up OK.  I actually have a large envelope of mixed annual Cosmos and must sow some again in Spring.  They're many years old, so it will be interestineg to see how they go in spring.

This topic reminds me that I must purchase a chocolate cosmos again as mine has gone.  Doesn't last long for me unfortunately..... didn't even see them in nurseries this year so they may gone out of fashion again.   Or I just missed them with everything else going on in life.   Got to love the colour and smell.  Is the dahlias you're talking about from the seed that was seedlings from wild seed of the red/black?  I have one big healthy plant, but not had a flower on it yet.  I broke one stem off it at one point and then discovered it had a bud on it..... darn thing aborted in the vase of course.    I do so want to see what colour it is.

[rob krejzl]

Paul,

Still around in nurseries. Want cuttings material?

[Paul T]

Rob,

Thanks for the offer, but given how bad my procrastination is right now, cuttings wouldn't be the best idea.    I am REALLY good at getting nothing done at present.

I wonder whether they were up this way or not this year?  I didn't get to a lot of nurseries, but still got to enough that I would have thought I would have seen them.  I don't think I realised that they'd grow from cuttings?  Makes sense when I think about it, but had not occurred to me before.  

Thanks again for the offer.  I'm just concerned that right now it would be a waste of the material as I wouldn't get them done quickly, nor looked after properly.

[rob krejzl]

I've been trying to layer mine - when I dig them up later in the year I'll send something along if there's a surplus.

[Paul T]

Thanks Rob.

I really do appreciate the offer, just don't want to waste material at the moment.