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Overwinter Chocolate Cosmos
To Keep Hummingbirds Coming Back
By PAMELA SIEGEL
Chocolate cosmos acts as a magnet for hummingbirds. When properly overwintered, this fragrant flower will return year after year, ensuring the birds keep returning to your garden.
This tender perennial can survive winters in hardiness zones 9 to 11 if you cut the plants back in autumn. Leave the tubers in the ground, and they will sprout again
in spring.
However, in zones 4 to 8 where winters can be harsher, you'll need to dig up the tubers and store them indoors. You can replant them in spring, dividing them if necessary.
Alternatively, in colder climates, you can plant chocolate cosmos in containers, which can be moved indoors or to a sheltered space, such as a garage, during the winter months.