The Colorful Cosmos Flowers With Pretty Petals That Looks Great In Cut Arrangements

The cosmos flower (Cosmos bipinnatus) is already popular with cut-flower growers and home gardeners as a prolific bloom that is perfect for cutting, so it's exciting to learn of a group of gorgeous cosmos varieties that may have even more to offer in a cut arrangement than their more common relatives. The Double Click group of cosmos offers fully double and semi-double blooms up to 4 inches wide in which petals give a frilly or fluffy appearance. The Double Click varieties are more likely to hold onto their petals than other cosmos varieties, which makes for longer lasting cut flower arrangements.

Almost everything about cosmos in the Double Click group makes them a choice flower for cutting — from their frilly blooms to their tall, slender, easy-to-cut stems. You can coax the plant to branch out to produce more blooms by cutting the main stem when plants are 6 to 12 inches high. Flowers will last up to a week in a vase. Even their feathery, fern-like foliage looks good when paired with cut flowers.

Each unique cultivar includes either a single gorgeous color or a mix of them, including red, pink, violet, cranberry, and white. Two varieties — 'Double Click Bicolor Violet' and 'Double Click Bicolor Pink' have fine white stripes alternating with their respective colors.

The desirable attributes of the Double Click group don't end with its colorful, cut-flower beauty. They are also quick and easy to grow for beginner gardeners, drought resistant once established, and deer resistant. Pollinators flock to cosmos in the Double Click group. Although these varieties are annuals like all cosmos, they are prolifically self-seeding, so you are likely to see new plants next season. These cosmos are long-blooming, making flowers available for cutting from early summer to first frost. Their flowers-per-square-foot productivity has few rivals .

Learning how to care for cosmos flowers, including those in the Double Click group, is a cinch. You can start seeds indoors four to six weeks before the last frost and transplant them. Whether transplanting or direct-sowing outside, begin after the last frost date and when the soil temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and barely cover seeds with soil. Cosmos in the Double Click group are not fussy about soil, as long as it drains well. Choose a spot with full sun. 

Expect seeds to germinate in five to 10 days and blooms to appear in 75 to 90 days. Plants should reach 2 to 3 feet tall. Planting densely is the best approach when cutting is your goal and has the added benefits of helping to suppress weeds, as well as allowing tall, thin stems to support each other. To prevent insect damage on petals, harvest flowers while they are still in tight bud. You can keep harvesting for about eight weeks.

The Double Click group of cosmos probably won't have any trouble meeting your cut flower needs, but you can do a few things to optimize blooming. In fact, the more you cut, especially at the base of the stem, the more blooms will grow. Because the plant grows quickly, you can also practice succession planting, growing multiple Double Click crops. You can also deadhead cosmos to keep blooms coming all fall long.