The Cosmos Queen and her beautiful garden

Time for a new post featuring my lovely friend, the Cosmos Queen. She has been a busy bee, making a beautiful garden, packed with flowers.

You may have met the Cosmos Queen in some earlier posts. I have added a link below, for her most recent post.

The awesome power of the garden

We first met under incredibly sad circumstances almost five years ago. Sadly, her much loved husband had passed away, and I offered my support and friendship.

Since then, our friendship has well and truly blossomed, and the Cosmos Queen has bloomed into a fabulously keen gardener.

In particular, she absolutely loves her dahlias, and has a plan to plant many more this year.

With this in mind, she has been busy planning where she can plant them all.

Read on for an update on her plans for this year.

Planning a beautiful garden

The Cosmos Queen has been busy, laying out her plumb lines for another dahlia border. She has measured the mower, to ensure the grass path will be slightly wider. How sensible is that? In addition, a Christmas present, the shiny new wheel barrow is primed and ready to remove the turf to another part of the garden.

I had noticed, in our conversations late last year, that the Cosmos Queen was not looking forward to the first month of the year much at all. I must admit, that January did appear to last for a jolly long time this year. All that wet and stormy weather did not help, and us gardeners, well, we want to get gardening.

I am lucky enough to have Favolosa, my beautiful greenhouse, but it is fantastic to have good weather to get outside too and get planting.

However, we hatched plans for our gardens and bought seeds, summer bulbs and dahlia tubers, which helped raise our spirits enormously.

Thankfully, February and some sunshine arrived, so the Cosmos Queen’s operation dahlia border number two could commence.

And she suddenly had a real spark of enjoyment back in her voice, now that she could put her plans into action and look forward to a garden brim full of colour.

I received progress reports and photos during the morning of operation dahlia border number two and was most impressed by the turbo charged digging in evidence. Likewise, the neatness of the new bed, nestled against its new grass path.

More on those grass paths later.

Here come the dahlias

The photo above is the Cosmos Queen’s first dahlia border. She packed this border full of dahlias and aimed for as much colour as possible.

Clearly, she succeeded in her aim, and the border was chock full of colour, all summer long and up till the first frosts last year.

Her second dahlia border will add even more glorious colour to her beautiful garden.

In addition, she has many new honka dahlias, collarette’s and singles, which will be fabulous for the bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

She even has some of my favourite, Verrone’s Obsidian dahlias on order, and due any day now. A variety that she was a little lukewarm about when I was swooning over them in the past. However, the Cosmos Queen has grown to love the V O as much as I do and has subsequently ordered three of them.

Furthermore, I shall be sowing dahlia seeds soon, so she will need to find room for plenty of those too. Carry on digging super turbo charged Cosmos Queen.

More flowers for a beautiful garden

I will also be sowing several varieties of zinnias. Definitely Purple Prince, seen above, as the bees and butterflies love the huge blooms. In addition, some white Polar Bear, lime green Envy and Californian Giant in a mixture of colours.

As a result, the Cosmos Queen will need to find some space in her garden for several zinnias. In addition, I am sowing Morning Glory, Heavenly Blue, and sweet peas, Blue Velvet and orange, Henry Eckford which will be winging her way too.

The sweet peas will join her recent purchase, Here Come the Girls, which she is sowing direct in April.

I also have some Malope Vulcan and Scabious Imperial Mix with her name on them. All fabulous flowers for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Furthermore, fantastic colours to help her to create the most vibrant beautiful garden.

Did I forget to mention the Coreopsis Incredible Swirl? In addition, to all those dahlia seeds I mentioned above, that I will be sowing soon.

Grass paths are coming to the beautiful garden

One of our chats a few years ago was about grass paths. I bet the Cosmos Queen that she would end up digging out so many borders, she would have grass paths instead of a lawn.

Of course, she laughed and said she was sure she would be ok with the one border across the lawn and the others around the edges.

She then chose several more dahlias, and the next year, more dahlias. Followed by, yes you have guessed it, more dahlias.

I always help my grass path prophesy, by providing flowers I have grown from seed each year, as mentioned above.

Considering the number of sunflower seed packets I have seen in her seed tin, I was feeling confident on the grass paths for the future.

Naturally, I was correct, and the grass paths are coming. Albeit, slightly earlier than I thought, as they appear to all be arriving this year.

You can imagine how we both laugh at the moment, as the grass path total for the month is likely to be three I believe. Gosh, the Cosmos Queen is a turbo charged digger.

She tells me that digging out borders is not her favourite job, but basks in her achievements afterwards. Particularly, the thought of all that room for dahlias and other flowers, for zingy colour and for the pollinators.

The cosmos flower border

 The Cosmos Queen kick started her passion for gardening after I gave her a bunch of cosmos flowers picked from my garden. Swiftly followed by my gift of some cosmos plants that I had grown in Favolosa, my greenhouse.

She loved them so much, I gave her a lovely new name, the Cosmos Queen.

Almost five years later the passion for cosmos flowers knows no bounds. Her seed box has a grand total of sixteen different varieties, all waiting to be sown this year.

As a result, she tells me that she will be digging out another border this weekend, which will be filled with cosmos flowers she will be growing in the garden from seed.

In consequence, another grass path will suddenly appear and the plans for a beautiful garden, full of even more colour, will include a cosmos flower border.

Furthermore, another flower border that will be fantastic for the bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

If you would like to grow some cosmos, now is a great time to get some seeds. I have added a few links below for suppliers of some fantastic varieties. I shall try not to look as I have thirty varieties already. The link can be used for any seeds, plants or bulbs.

Cosmos seed options from Thompson and Morgan

Sarah Raven cosmos seed options

Moving onto tulips for spring

I mentioned earlier that the Cosmos Queen had not been looking forward to the start of the year. She was missing the riot of colour she has in her garden in spring, and especially summer and into autumn.

Fantastic colour in the garden is such a boon to wellbeing, I always find. Of course, our winter bedding does bring some colour, but it is never a match for the sheer abundance of colours in the summer.

However, her tulips have decided to bud up incredibly early, so she is about to get more colour earlier than expected.

Her tulips really have got a hop on this year. No doubt, with the above average temperatures we have been having, the tulips have got confused.

As a matter of fact, I have had a purple honesty flowering in my garden since late November, and it is still blooming now, in mid February.

Do let me know if you have any confused bulbs or plants in your garden this year.

Time to finish this post featuring my dear friend, the Cosmos Queen. I hope you have enjoyed the update on her beautiful garden, and her plans for more borders and flowers. Naturally, she will be back with photos of her new dahlias and flower filled borders later. And that ever shrinking lawn, converted into grass paths.

This blog is an affiliate for Thompson and Morgan and Sarah Raven. If you click on one of these links above, and make a purchase I may receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.

To see all my updates as they happen, please enter your email address below and press the subscribe button.