fall cleanup question

My beautiful cosmos are bowing to the ground despite being tied up with string and covered with morning glories... and they are STILL BLOOMING down there!.

What should I do with these things? I am thinking I need to cut them off and get the flowers off them and put the flowers in vases all over the house (and maybe even vases or containers outside?) ... glean the seeds and trash the the stalks... then pull out the roots and use that as a chance to plant my spring blooming bulbs where the roots of these used to be???

Does this make sense?

Thanks for your help ... from a true novice/winging it

Love in Christ,
Janie
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Janie, believe me I am a novice too! But if you don't like the way your garden looks, then you need to do something about it! My cosmos keep bowing down also, but I don't have very many of them. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to really work in the garden a lot. I need to deadhead & pull weeds among other things. (planting spring bulbs included). It sounds like you have a plan, me personally I just jump in and do things without thinking about it much...yes, I regret some of the things I've done!

Janie:
If you cut the flowers before the seeds mature they wont be any good.

If you want to save the seeds you need to let them mature on the plant until they dry.
Hope this helps

Paul

Janiejoy... you're a zone 5 like me... soon to be getting a killing frost. When I know frost is coming I run around like a mad women cutting anything that is blooming. I make arangements for the house, for freinds, neighbors, and work. I cut 'em all!! It's about the only time I'm not hesitant about cutting flowers since the frost will get them anyhow. If your plants are flopping and making a mess go ahead and cut them back. You can collect the seeds that are ripe, cut the nice blooms for a boquet, and compost the left overs. It sounds like your plan is right on the money to me.

I'd make bouquets, too, Janie! Maybe you could leave one or two plants with some blooms so seed could be harvested. Does anyone know if cosmos can be treated like tomatoes in that tomato plants can be pulled, roots and all (include some soil with the rootball), and put on straw in a garage and the fruit will continue to ripen? I wonder if this could be done with the cosmos, or if she could pot a couple of them up until the seedheads matured. Any ideas?

Thanks poppysue, for the encouragement.

Today I got some gumption, and while I still had some energy and before the rain, I went out and cut down the cosmos (yanked it out by the roots where it wasn't covered with MG's). Saved what flowers I could... but when I got rid of these bowed down babies, I found seven Dahlias hiding beneath them! They had bent down the Dahlia stems... they break when you right them so I had to cut them all. They're the ones that are variegated wine and white... gorgeous big flowers, I love their fragrance.

So I have a big bouquet on the dining room table. Once the MG's die off the rudebeckia, I'll cut what is left there too. There are black eyed susans in the front (the more orangey ones, about 2 1/2 feet high, not sure what kind since they were here when we came)... they are now just black pompoms on the upright stems... those are GREAT halloween decorations! One even has its own spider web and spider!

My neighbor is calling me Morticia because I left the stalks of the dead volunteer sunflowers after they quit blooming for the MG's to climb... that worked well, actually, because the MG's didn't really take off till after the sunflowers were done and scarfed up by the critters.

Funny, none of the wonderful hybrid sunflowers I planted even popped a seedling. Birds must have scarfed them. But the volunteers...! They had little sunflowers all up and down the stalks. It was adorable. Going to try and do that again... the bird feeder is right outside the window where I sit to use the computer. The kitties love to sit there and chirp at the birds. :)

I don't have a compost pile because I live in a city neighborhood and can't figure out where to put one that won't offend a neighbor (or two)... saw several ideas for building one that looks nice but the fibromyalgia is so bad right now I haven't even put together the potting bench I bought this June. So I'm not going to be building anything fora while, unfortunately, and DH is NOT handy around the house. He's good at killing spiders inside, but outside he is NOT thrilled ... except that he will dig a nice deep hole for me if I ask him. He does mow the grass very nicely... but the garden is mine.

What the heck, he works hard, he shouldn't have to do the garden too. Besides, it's my delight. I felt sad pulling out my cosmos... they were the talk of the neighborhood, they got so tall they peeked over the 8 foot stockade fence!

Sorry this is so long, but I just had to vent a little.

Thanks, everyone for listening.

Love in Christ,
Janie
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we put our cosmos in cages, 52" high x 24" wide.
the plants grow so thick that you can't see the cages.
if let alone the plants will reseed.

You won't feel bad when you have your soil all nice and worked up, daffodils and tulips and alliums and crocus planted, and a nice light mulch over the whole thing to stop it from washing. You will have put your flower bed to bed and it will look expectant for next Spring. That's not a bad thing!

THANKS!!!

I really needed to hear that to get myself busy finishing the job. I have a lot of work to do this week, and my husband is working a LOT of extra hours... so he'll be out of my hair... that means a lot because when he's around I want to do things with him, and so I don't get much done in the garden!

Thanks so much, woodspirit1 for the encouragement. You are ABSOLUTELY right!
Now I'm looking forward to finishing up.

Love in Christ,
Janie
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