Ladybird Dwarf Cosmos 'Cosmos Sulphureus' Sulphur Natural Dye Flower Seed

$5.99
50+ seeds per packet.

This is Ladybird Dwarf Cosmos seed, 'Cosmos Sulphureus'. These dwarf Cosmos are plenty tall at 2-3' tall, and grew with a more mounded, cohesive look than the taller Tango Cosmos that are so tall that they appear more leggy. I think these cosmos are as tall as I need in my garden, and the blooms had a little more red striping on the petals that was very attractive.

Cosmos like to grow in sun, and picking the flowers just encourages more to bloom. You can seed these in the ground directly, as long as you keep the soil moist continuously until they germinate.

To dye the wool yarn pictured, I used yarn pre-mordanted with alum, and the both the Tango and dwarf cosmos flowers in the pot shown in the picture. You can see that the flowers gave the really vibrant orange, and then I added a bit of soda ash to the dye bath to make it more alkaline and dipped just half the skein of yarn in it, to dye half the skein the really intense, deep reddish orange you see in the picture. So, you can very easily get a bright juicy orange color, or make the dye bath a little more alkaline and get an almost red-orange color.

You can pick the flowers and freeze them until you have enough to dye with, or some people dry them as well.

These seeds are grown here in my gardens.
50+ seeds per packet.

This is Ladybird Dwarf Cosmos seed, 'Cosmos Sulphureus'. These dwarf Cosmos are plenty tall at 2-3' tall, and grew with a more mounded, cohesive look than the taller Tango Cosmos that are so tall that they appear more leggy. I think these cosmos are as tall as I need in my garden, and the blooms had a little more red striping on the petals that was very attractive.

Cosmos like to grow in sun, and picking the flowers just encourages more to bloom. You can seed these in the ground directly, as long as you keep the soil moist continuously until they germinate.

To dye the wool yarn pictured, I used yarn pre-mordanted with alum, and the both the Tango and dwarf cosmos flowers in the pot shown in the picture. You can see that the flowers gave the really vibrant orange, and then I added a bit of soda ash to the dye bath to make it more alkaline and dipped just half the skein of yarn in it, to dye half the skein the really intense, deep reddish orange you see in the picture. So, you can very easily get a bright juicy orange color, or make the dye bath a little more alkaline and get an almost red-orange color.

You can pick the flowers and freeze them until you have enough to dye with, or some people dry them as well.

These seeds are grown here in my gardens.