Love It! Cosmos Day Dream

Cosmos is very easy to grow, and especially when the flowers are as pretty as this one, it's like hitting a jackpot.

Two months, or 65 days to be exact, after seeding, the first flower has just opened.  I love the color so much <3

Happy but Devastated.

My first Blanket Flower finally bloomed, and I felt a great sense of achievement.  After all, I waited nearly 7 months for this day!

 I love the colors.  What a cheerful flower :)

BUT...

Something devastating has happened in the last few days.  Five days ago, the plant looked like THIS, and today, it looks like the pictures below.

What is going on??  It's all wilted and looks like something stomped on the plant.  Same thing happened to the Blanket Flower I planted in the front yard and killed the first, very-much-anticipated flower.  I've been watering them well, and they looked happy.  Now what?  What did I do wrong?  I've got to do some research on this.  Does anyone know?

Witnessing the Vogue Apple Blossom

Geraniums seeds germinated in 5 days, so I thought this plant was a fast grower.  I was WRONG! These, in fact, grow so slowly that I eventually stopped paying attention, but if I see the pictures in the last entry from January, it sure has grown bigger.  Even better, I found buds!

Can you see the buds?

Close-up.  Can you see the buds?

Single petaled pale pink flowers opened on the 181st day after seeding.  By the way, according to the seed package, the color is indicated as "Vogue Apple Blossom" - so I was expecting to see darker color.

Seed Pods.

Texas Bluebonnet adds bright blue color in my garden, and I am glad I grew them.  Even now in late April, Texas Bluebonnet is still blooming profusely, but some of the early bloomers started having their babies.

 Look how pretty these flowers are.  So blue and so pretty.

New buds pop up continuously.

There are many seed pods on the flowers that started earlier.  There will be many seeds to seed next year :)

Almost, almost!

The Blanket Flower bud I wrote about last month was snapped off by the winds or something and eventually died :(  However, the giant (literally!) Blanket Flower planted in the backyard started to show some buds right after the 'casualty' in the front yard.  It's been over a month since I found this bud, but I haven't yet to see the first flower.  Talk about patience!

The giant Blanket Flower in the backyard is about 3-feet tall while the one in the front yard is about 10-inches tall.  I don't know if this is normal because the ones I see in my neighbors' yards aren't this big.

The bud.  Looks as though each petal is an individual bud, don't you agree?

3 days after the above picture was taken, and while I see a slight change, it doesn't seem like it's ready to open anytime soon.  I guess I will have to wait several more days. 

Patience, patience...

It has been almost 7 months since I seeded the seed.

Just Because It's So Pretty.

My Gaura is a happy plant!  It continuously opens new flowers that look like butterflies (oh, those who don't know, I am butterfly-fobia). 

Aren't they pretty? 

Cosmos - Day Dream Update

I procrastinated - again - to make entries, but I've been taking pictures of my plants :)  (Thank goodness!)

Here, I am showing the progress that my Cosmos has made in the last several weeks.  But then, I wonder if this is better than frequent updates so you can see more pictures in one entry?

 About 2 weeks after the seedlings emerged, I transplanted them in the ground, in my backyard flower bed where the soil is sandy.  I divided seedlings and planted them in slightly different conditioned spots of the same flower bed.  (Location 1: more sun)

 (Location 2: more shades)

 About a month after transplant, Cosmos in Location 2 started to show buds.  Location 1 is about the same height as these, but I don't see a bud yet.