Beginner Gardening: Cosmos Stalks ingrowing,Moonvine getting too big, 3 by Kalloused

Kalloused wrote:
Instead of making 2 separate threads I thought I would just put my three questions into one.
First question: My moonvine that you all helped me bring back from the brink of death is ENORMOUS. I bought the biggest pole I could find for it(a five footer) and it's grown about 2 inches above it looking for someplace to go. The problem is I have no where for the vine to go. It's out in the condo garden(in a 16 inch pot) because my back porch only get about 3-4 hours of sun a day(in a good spot). Will it adapt to the size of the pole or do I need to find some place for it to attach and continue to grow. I would LOVE to bring it back to my porch and have it just take over my fence, but fear the lack of sun will stop it from growing and eventually blooming(it's got 2 buds on it now). Since it is so big and thriving would it adapt ok to bring it in and let it crawl along my fence line? Or does it need to continue getting the all day sun to succeed? here are some pics

Second question:I'm growing Cosmos again this year, and this time last year they were huge,lush and blooming. This year,while tall,the green leaves are thin and not thick and lush and I've had 2 premature blooms(small,dry and dead). The only thing different I've done with these is I didn't start them in peat pellets...I went straight into some miracle gro potting soil(I'm having the same problem with my 4'oclocks, this time last year they were 3 feet high and starting to bloom...this year they are about a foot tall. Only difference is I didn't use peat pellets) I'm also getting,what I can only describe as "ingrown stalks" on my thickest cosmo stalks(see pic) where the growth has stopped and they are almost growing into itself like an ingrown toenail. Do I clip the stalk and hope for regrowth? What can I do to bring back these babies to full lush. Everything seems to be so behind schedule this year and I don't understand why. I don't know if it's the weather(it getting hot a little later) or if I didn't start from peat.


Thanks for taking the time to read this, any advice would be greatly appreciated with getting my Four o'clocks back on track as well. I put a LOT of hard work into transforming our side garden to make it look nice and would really like to see the 4 o'clocks grow to full bloom.

Two pictures of the Moonvine(full view and the top where it's starting to over grow)
Top down picture of the ingrown stalk problem with the Cosmos


Thanks again Kall.

P.S I'm curious about any types of flowers I can grow year round or get started to have in the fall/winter time inside my house where I get no sun through the windows. Is there any such flower or plant? If there is or anyone has any seeds I would be very interested. If this summer turns out to be 90% bust I'm going to have to grow something in the winter. This gardening bug has bit me two hard my second year.