Cosmos are a familiar sight all over the world. I had always thought as a child growing up they were some type of African Daisy and fell in love with their tall stalks of waving blooms, in glorious various shades of dark and light pinks, deep cerise and white.
Just look at those beautiful varieties of colours. Nature is beautiful and to enjoy them all in just a moment in time, and reflect on God's beautiful creation and the bright blue sky.
It is commonly known amongst gardeners that the Cosmos is family member of the Mexican aster and they are native to the scrubs and meadowlands in Mexico My late mom loved her aster daisies.
The fields everywhere literally come alive, coated with pinks and white.
This photograph of me looking for "that picture', was beautifully captured courtesy of my fellow photographer mate Gail Wilson, during one of our Photo Walkers sessions. I am wearing one of my late Mom Molly's shirts for this occasion.
Cosmos along the rural roads of the Drakensberg on my way for a hiking trip in Injisuti.
In April they are at their best and driving along the roads you will spot fields upon fields, of hundreds of thousands, of flowers. It is a sight to behold and, social media is flooded with people sharing their photographs and sheer joy in experiencing the flowers first hand. They grow easily in the soil on the side of the roads and are distributed often by the various road scrapers and graders widening the verges.
We find them widespread across the higher eastern plains of South Africa, where it is said the cosmos flowers were originally introduced, through contaminated horse feed, which was imported during the Anglo-Boer War from Argentina.
Just wow beautiful. Love taking photos of Cosmos.
Every March and November, our countryside completely explodes with a kaleidoscope of pinks and white blooms. They bloom in our early autumn and again in late summer.
This becomes a bee pollen festival, with a permanent pollen buffet. the constant sound, is the humming of the bees, coupled with the wind blowing between the stalks and leaves. The bees' little legs become heavily coated with the yellow pollen, and one wonders how they can fly straight.
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| Just look at all that pollen on the worker bee's tiny legs. |
The last bee photo for now!
Of course, I just cannot leave out my furkids! Odie, also called Odie Podie, my precious, brat, squirt, and little shit, my tiny longhaired Jack Russel. Then my long-haired German Shephard Indy Beowulf, also known as Fuffles, Indy Bear, Bear Wolf, or just plain Indy. Indy in particular is a real nature boy and, loves rolling around in all the cosmos and other flowers, or just to lay down and enjoy the moment.
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| My heart |
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| Note the pink Cosmos on his head, could not resist. |
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| My handsome boy |
I love nothing better than to lie in a field of Cosmos flowers and, look up at the blooms and sky, listening to the wind blowing through them.
So, just where do these flowers originate from and how did they get to Africa, in particular South Africa, where we have come to love and enjoy them as part of our landscape?
Accoridng to Grant (2016), in an interesting article I read online posted on the Cradles of Humankind, "Cosmos are a herbaceous type of perennial plant growing up to 0.3m (1 ft 0 in - 6 ft 7in) tall". Direct Quote (Grant:2016)
Grant (2016) further adds that the cosmos leaves are simple, pinnate or bipinnate. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs. Grant (2016) exlapins that the Cosmos flowered are formed in a capitulum, with a circle of wide ray florets, and its centre are disc florets.
According to Grant (2016), the colours found will largely dependant on which species they are and its genus various ornamental plants we find in our gardens today. Many hubrids and cultivars of Cosmos were found and then named.
In reading Amy Grant's (2016) blog, she refers to Cosmos as the "Flower History Referring to cosmos as “old-time” flowers is apropos". According to Grant (2016) cosmos were taken to Midrid by 16th Century Spanish explorers.
Apparently the wife of the then English ambassador to Spain decided to collect the seeds of the Cosmos plant upon her return to England in the late 1700's according to Grant (2016).
According to Grant (2016), Cosmos plant found their way into the mission gardens of Spanish priests. who so loved the evenly spaced out petals, went ahead and christened them "Cosmos" which in the Greek langues meants "ordered universe of harmony"
They are found in the southern parts of the United States, Arizona, Central America, and all the way to South America, and as far south as Paraguay. There is only one species, C, bipinnatus, which has naturalized itself across much of the eastern United States and eastern Canada.
I really hope you enjoyed all the millions of photographs of one of my favourite flowers and a bit on the origins of the Cosmos flowers.
Grant, A. 2016. All About Old-Time Cosmos. Available: https://blog.gardeningknowhow.com/tbt/old-time-cosmos-flowers/ Accessed on 2022/02/28
Cradle of Humankind in bloom - Garden cosmos. 2014. Available: https://www.maropeng.co.za/news/entry/cradle-of-humankind-in-bloom-garden-cosmos Accessed on 2022/02/28
