how to make cosmos bloom again (and again) before summer is officially over

Gardening

How to Make Cosmos Bloom Again (and Again) Before Summer Is Officially Over

Drescription

Key Points

Take a quick garden walk to spot watering or pruning needs.

Don’t panic—most stressed plants can bounce back with care.

Check for pests that may have moved in while you were away.

Unfussy cosmos are a low-maintenance landscaper lover’s dream. They don’t need much help to produce a profusion of colorful, pollinator-friendly blooms. However, if you're growing cosmos and they’re only producing a few flowers or they suddenly stop blooming in the height of summer, you might be making some simple mistakes in terms of care or conditions.

Here’s how to make your cosmos bloom again (and again) right through summer to the first fall frost.

Why Cosmos Stop Blooming in Late Summer

Various culprits could be causing your cosmos flowers to fade or fail to rebloom as summer progresses. Aside from not tidying spent flowers, neglecting to adjust your care to account for seasonal changes can be a blight on blooms.

Too much shade, excessive fertilizer or water, and lack of respite from intense heat waves can all slow down or stop cosmos from blooming.

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7 Ways to Make Cosmos Bloom Again

To ensure your cosmos have a second wind when it comes to flowering, try these tricks.

Deadhead spent flowers: When the first flush of flowers fades, cut the stem with sterile shears above the first leaves to promote new bud formation. This keeps your plant focused on flower production.

Pick the best yard position: Cosmos are sun-lovers that need a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of full sun to produce plenty of big blooms.

Protect during heatwaves: Temperatures above 95°F will stress your cosmos and pause blooming. If you live in a heatwave-prone region, consider growing cosmos in containers. That way, you can move them to a cooler when the mercury rises.

Pinch for productive plants: When your young cosmos reach 8 to 10 inches tall, use clippers to remove the top of the stem, leaving just a few sets of leaves. This encourages more branches and blooms.

Weigh up your watering habits: Cosmos are drought-tolerant plants that don’t appreciate soggy soils. Avoid overwatering, letting the soil dry fully between irrigations.

Avoid overfertilization: These plants thrive in poor soils and don’t require feeding when grown in the ground. A balanced, slow-release, low-nitrogen fertilizer is best for container-grown cosmos. Too much nitrogen means the plant will focus on leaf rather than bloom production.

Prune to promote air circulation: Fungal diseases, like fusarium wilt and powdery mildew, can cause problems with cosmos bud drop and bloom development. Don’t plant seedlings too close, prune vigorously branching leaves, and water plants at the base.

Avoid artificial light: If you have security lights on all night in your yard, this can cause issues as cosmos need 12 hours of darkness to start blooming.

3 Signs Your Cosmos Will Rebloom

After taking steps to remedy an unexpected pause in blooming, these subtle clues could be a sign that a flurry of fresh flowers are on the way.

New bud formation: Can you see new, small, round swellings at the tips of your plant’s stems? This means that new blooms are forming.

Fresh growth: Stressed plants stop or slow their leaf production and can experience stunted growth. If you see signs of new leaves growing and your plant is putting on a growth spurt, that’s a good sign.

Plant perks up: A wilting plant that has too much sun or the wrong amount of water will start to become more upright as it recovers its vigor.

How to Keep Cosmos Blooming Until Frost

Now that you’ve got the blooms back on track, continue to make the most of the flowers until the first frosts arrive by watering deeply but infrequently, allowing the soil to dry out in between waterings.

Watch for pests, such as aphids, slugs, and spider mites, to proactively prevent bloom-limiting infestations. Plus, provide shelter from strong winds to help protect tall cosmos varieties when staking isn’t enough.

How We Made Vintage-Inspired Corbels For The Outdoor Kitchen Gazebo

As I was designing this “kitchen gazebo,” I found almost no inspiration that looked and functioned like I wanted ours to look/feel. They were mostly big boxy McMansion-looking Texas-style structures or hexagonal sweet old timey gazebos, but I found almost no images of rectangular covered structures that looked charming and pretty. So I knew that it would have to be done in the details – i.e., custom rafter tails, or in today’s case, vintage-inspired corbels. A corbel is a structural and decorative bracket that connects the beams to the posts in the corners, creating a stronger structure and, for me, softening the harshness of the strong lines. It was a perfect opportunity to add some sweet charm and make this structure less boxy. The Original Corbels On The Covered Walkway I got the idea for them from our very own covered walkway that had corbels between each post and beam, as you can see above. I loved the sweet scrollwork and wanted to mimic that, but bigger for the gazebo (we also had four small ones leftover from the part of the walkway that didn’t make it that we put on the island – I’ll show you later). Time To Shop… So I went down to Aurora Mills, my favorite architectural salvage place, 1/2 hour outside of Portland, and shopped. My hope was to get 8 large corbels that matched, but of course, we had specific dimensions we had to stay within, and obviously, stylistically, I had my dream corbel in mind. I knew it would be a shot in the dark, but I didn’t know where else to start. If nothing else, I’d come back with some inspiration and firmer ideas. Aurora Mills had a ton of antique corbels, saved from vintage Victorian houses. It was super inspiring, and I got to really dig into their whole inventory to see if I could make anything work. I collected every single option that would fit size-wise (we needed them to be at least 4-5″ thick, at least 11″ deep, and the height had some flexibility, but the structure was big, so I was hoping for a 12×16-sized corbel. I was obsessed with all these carved out details – we just don’t do this anymore (OR – spoiler – DO WE???? :)) We tried hard to find four that matched and couldn’t. Then we were like, what if we found some that were close enough and when painted, would work together? Could 8 different corbels, all painted white, look charming and eclectic? Or just really amateur? I also took note of other architectural design elements that I liked – this is the best thing about shopping vintage, you are forced out of a box because you are beholden to what is available. I LOVED the floral design on this salvaged piece of gingerbread, and tried to make it work a few different places on the property. I LOVED the one on the left, with that sweet and simple little cut out and there were a few that were similar to it, but they were in pretty bad shape, meaning they would need repair on their own before they were even painted (this kind of work can cost a lot of money in my experience). The simpler brackets on the right were strong (and there were tons of them), so we even thought about combining the two – see below. I think the (desperate) thought here was to buy vintage/reclaimed, do something creative to make it work by taking the floral cutout and pasting it inside the simpler bracket. This is where you start realizing that you are complicating your life so much just to use something vintage (I’ve done this MANY times, with varying degrees of success/failure). We still brought them all to our house to check them out (Aurora Mills knows me and let me borrow them for a day). I LOVED how it looked, and that’s when I made the smart (albeit more expensive) decision to hire a local maker to make 8 new ones, based on the vintage design. Purl To The Rescue! I called my friend/frequent collaborator Purl (follow @total_nonsequitur) and asked him if he could make these custom corbels. He is just one of those talented makers and artists who can figure out anything and loves the challenge (he made my coffee table, my huge paint brush and pencil, my sofa table, and I have so many of his paintings). I showed him a picture of the corbel and gave him the dimensions to make sure it was all doable before he came over. Then he popped by and we went over it – in a perfect world, we would have eight large ones and four small ones, the large ones being on the main posts and the small ones on the overhang. It was a big ask – that’s 12 custom corbels, two different designs that all had to look good with each other. I wasn’t looking for a new design, though; I really just wanted that simple floral Scandi corbel replicated. So he brought that back and used it as a template to create a new one. Purl shopped for and used reclaimed wood (both for cost purposes and the make it look a bit less polished/perfect/new). He created the cut-out design with a special tool for both ends, then stacked wood in between to add the thickness that we needed. I was so excited as he sent me photo after photo. I approved them, he dropped them off (this was while I was in Belize), and my brother started hanging them. In a perfect world, they would have been done in time to paint, but we had to stick to a schedule, so our painter painted the structure and planned to come back to paint these separately. I think he used massive screws to scre them in? Not totally sure. All I know is that I came back from Belize, and it looked like this: I was THRILLED!!!! They looked SO GOOD. Once painted white, they looked sweet and pretty, but not too fussy. They actually scaled down the gazebo in my mind, softening the lines. Next up were the smaller ones to go on those ends – we had waited to start them, unsure that we 100% needed them, but once these 8 were up, I really wanted the final four small ones to make those corners even softer. I just LOVED the vibe it was creating and wanted more. I gave Purl the creative control to make the smaller ones however he wanted to work with the larger ones – he knows more about the process of making them and what would actually work based on his learnings on the larger ones (without needing to buy new equipment or experiment more). Here you can see how they all look together (and you can even look closely to see our vintage small corbels holding up the island countertop). I LOVE how they look so much. Purl did such an incredible job at making them look original and vintage – they are scaled perfectly to the gazebo and definitely soften all the rectangular lines. And then yes, my brother painted the glued the old covered walkway corbels onto the island to make it look like it’s holding up the countertops. It’s a sweet little detail that I love a lot. And that’s the story of our custom corbels. If you are wondering how much they cost, I think I paid Purl $2,900 for all 12 of them (including materials and labor). It’s not nothing, but felt fair for the amount of time and talent that went into making these custom. By the way, I looked online a lot before and found some pretty great vintage-inspired dupes on Etsy (that were around $400 each, so not that much less), but they weren’t as sweet as ours, no cut-out flower. The only thing I regret is not paying the dough to do custom rafter tails (the part of the roofline that juts out that you can see from this angle). We did them throughout our house, but it’s a substantial cost (about $1k each), so we didn’t do it> But if I could snap my fingers, those ends would also be softened by a carved out curve. More To Come… We still need to hang our pendants that didn’t come in til a week after we had to shoot. We have big 20″ copper ladies from Rejuvenation that are rad and going to be hung pretty high, so you see them but still have a sense of airiness and space. For now, the string lights provide enough light, but the pendants will look so pretty. Additionally, we might add heaters to extend our time out here by months on either end of summer, and we might have to add gutters (but really hoping not to have to spend the money). Oh, and we did buy the big custom island cover that RTA makes for each – it’s a big U-shaped cover (in addition to grill covers) that you can put on the entire thing all winter long.

You Should Never Grow Mint in Your Garden, Gardeners Say—Here’s Why

Herb gardens are a staple for many gardeners. Not only are herbs fairly easy to grow, but you also get the added benefit of being able to harvest them on a regular basis for your cooking—and say goodbye to wasted store-bought herbs that go off in your fridge. But if you're considering adding mint to your garden—or are already growing it—you may want to think twice. We talked to expert gardeners to find out why you should never grow mint in the garden, and what to grow instead. Meet the Expert Anna Hackman is a farmer and managing member at The Naked Botanical. Edwin Dysinger is the co-founder of Seedtime, a garden planner app. Why You Shouldn't Grow Mint in the Garden Gardeners say you shouldn't grow mint in your garden because it can spread rapidly. "The main reason to not grow mint is that it tends to be very invasive and difficult to get rid of once it has become established," says Edwin Dysinger, co-founder of Seedtime. Anna Hackman, farmer and managing member at The Naked Botanical, agrees, and says mint can very easily crowd out other plants so they don't receive enough water, soil, nutrients, or even sunlight. Want more gardening tips? Sign up for our free gardening newsletter for our best growing tips, troubleshooting hacks, and more! Can You Still Grow Mint at Home? If you still want to grow mint at home, you have some options. First, Hackman suggests having dedicated beds for your mint, which is something she does herself in her own garden. "I have dedicated beds for my mints and each mint is separated so one doesn't push the other out," she says. Hackman also says if you do want to grow mint but are worried about it taking over your garden, there's an easy answer: grow it in containers, but don't plant the container in the ground. "You will need to pull out some of the mint periodically, so it doesn't choke itself," she says. "I made the mistake thinking I could contain it in a container buried in my garden bed and mint found its way out." Alternatives to Growing Mint Hackman has a self-professed "mint addiction," and grows several varieties like pineapple mint, green apple mint, spearmint, peppermint, and chocolate mint. She also suggests a couple of alternatives, if you like the aroma and appearance of mint but would rather grow something less invasive in your garden. "If you want to grow a mint-like plant, I recommend mountain mint or lemon balm," she says. "Lemon balm will self-seed but you can cut it before it flowers. It generally stays in the same vicinity and doesn't get that large." Mountain mint, she says, is pollinator-friendly and will attract lots of bees, but is a larger option and can grow up to 40 inches. Hackman says there are a range of varieties of mountain mint to fit your needs.

Want To Paint Your Concrete Floor? Read This First (Here’s What We Did)

When we first started “fixing up the garages” (that’s a real understatement, I know), one of the few things that we knew we could salvage was the concrete floor of the first bay (where our prop shelves live). The second bay (where our sofas now live:)) would need to be poured because it was rotten wood + dirt. For most of the renovation, I was so budget-focused (this was not a budget project, mind you), I tried very hard not to spend more than needed. So I was like “just leave it concrete, maybe seal it, but that’s it”. No fancy epoxy or garage floor company for us. But then, of course, when it’s all done, the pine was on the walls, and it was so pretty, the gross rust-covered floor popped, and I changed my tune. So today I’ll show you what we did and why. Ok, this was the OG prop storage garage and floor. I think the darkness was wet. We don’t know how old the concrete was, maybe 10-20 years, but it was FINE. Like, not incredible, but not worth demo-ing out and repouring. It had some cracks, and it wasn’t super level, but it was FINE. See? For a garage, it was “ok”. Now, of course, when you are redoing a garage, you have so many other options – Epoxies, fancier finishes with flex, or even rubber squares? But all of them cost $5k + and it just wasn’t where we wanted to put any money. This floor (in the other bay) had to be poured with new concrete. Now the reason I bring this up is because we actually treated the two differently – something I typically wouldn’t do, but it truly wasn’t important enough to me to spend the time and money. You’ll see. So for the sofa bay, Ken poured new concrete. GREAT. It looked really pretty. And just needed to be sealed. We used a satin polyurethane that he just rolled on and called it a day. But for the prop garage, which had a lot more stains and rust marks (and cracks), we decided that we needed more coverage. Something to cover the stains and make it look as fresh as possible. But of course, we were in a rush. It was Thursday, and the IKEA task rabbits were coming on Tuesday to install the closets (that once installed couldn’t be moved). I did a dumb thing – I thought I was choosing a transparent stain from Sherwin-Williams and quickly chose a deep blue. But then I realized… I actually chose a concrete paint that was opaque (aka not transparent, not a stain, a full paint color). Now I like the color, don’t get me wrong. But it was way too intense and jarring. I walked in and immediately called my brother (this was only one coat, thank goodness) and said, “I’m so sorry, I was wrong”. We just wanted it to look like a clean garage floor appropriate gray cement color. But you can’t just choose “gray,” there are a lot of bad, cold, clinical-looking grays, and our garage is pretty! So we sampled many, taking into account the wood on the walls and the green of the cabinet fronts. You have to pretend the floor isn’t blue and that the color would connect the wood to the green cabinets. They are all neutrals and all warmer grays (a couple even taupier). And that there was the winner – Illusive Green. FTW! It had a slightly green undertone, which looked great with the cabinets and the wood, and yet was still super neutral, letting the cabinets be the star. And by the way, we used Sherwin-Williams color-match concrete paint. Two coats, and each took about 3-4 hours to dry (no long curing session). I mean, sure, it just looks gray here, but I promise a bad gray could have looked flat, sad, depressing, and this gray does complement the green nicely. It’s full coverage, and should be easy to clean. Super low maintenance and stuck really easily. In that shot, you can see the undertones more, and how they complement the cabinets and wood. It was the cheapest option (besides just leaving it). My brother acid-washed it first just to clean it and get all the gunk up so that it would stick, and then the darker blue paint essentially just became a primer for this paint color. So that’s how we painted our concrete floor with “Porch and Flooring” product. Non-spon, Ken has just become great friends with the crew at the local SW, so he was psyched to use the product they recommended. Thanks, Ken!!

6 Beauty Products I Use Every day

wearing the same EXACT makeup for 6 years. Not because I don't try new things, or because I'm not into beauty, but because these products are exceptional. They were all originally recommended to me by pros (makeup artists when I started my on-camera career) and every time I've strayed from them I've come back, crying, makeup smeared down my face. I know that every skin is different, obviously, so I'm not necessarily talking about the shade or color - it's the product itself that is shockingly good regardless of what color of skin it's on. 1. Eye Brow Pencil by Laura Mercier. If Obama knocked on my door and I only had time to apply ONE thing to my face it would be my eyebrows so I could do my special eye-brow move for him. I look strangely sick without those two little lines across my face. I've tried one million different kinds out of sheer desperation (and because I don't really want to spend that much on an eyebrow pencil), but this one has the most natural looking colors. I think that nobody wants to be the lady with the drawn on eyebrows, but some of us have to be. This is a very good one that is easy to apply (it has a good consistency) and a really natural looking color. I buy fair blonde. 2. Orgasm Collection Blush by NARS. The only thing wrong with this blush is its name. When I was 24 I bartended at a bar with a drink called the "G Spot" and I think that SO many more people would have ordered that drink had they not had to say "hey lady, can I get a G-Spot over here?" So disregard that bad name because this is America's blush. It has a huge cult following because it makes every cheek look happy. Even if your skin is a wildly different tone, this blush is for you. It looks crazy hot pink but once its on your face it just looks healthy and alive. Ask any makeup artist in the world (because they all have it in their kit) about this blush and they'll tell you it's amazing. Be careful with "Super Orgasm" because its kinda shiny. 3. Long-Lasting 12 Hour Wear Eyeliner by Sephora. Everyday I put on a tiny line of eyeliner on the top of my lash line, and this one is by far the best. I've tried the really expensive and the really cheap. Most of them are too shiny, smudge too easily, have a brush thats too thick to apply, don't stay on long enough, or don't ever come off. This is just simple, easy, jet black (or brown), and long wearing. Plus it ain't expensive. 4. Luminous Silk Foundation by Giorgio Armani. When I was first introduced to this I was like "foundation? Base? What am I, a lady-mom from 1985?" But then they applied it on my face and my skin looked immediately fresh, flawless, and totally makeup free. It's expensive but worth every penny. I used to drive to Beverly Hills to buy this stuff when I ran out (because it used to only be sold at Saks in store). It has a SLIGHT reflective quality that makes the light bounce off your skin in a really healthy-glow kind of way, and it's really light so you never feel like you are wearing makeup, yet it covers all dark circles (I don't even wear concealer), and flaws. 5. Long Lash Mascara by Laura Mercier. Now this is the only one where I'm like "I like it" but I'm not swearing by it. I'm desperate to find my mascara. Something that doesn't smudge, but is long lasting, easy to take off, and doesn't clump. If it can add length and curl then wonderful. Extra credit if it makes me look like Kim Kardashian circa 2008. But seriously, any amazing ones out there? I've tried fancy (Chanel), and drugstore (Loreal) with the same similar results - not bad, but not the one. Maybe I just have bad short blonde lashes and will never be satisfied because ultimately a mascara will never give me what I want. That could be it. Also I got eyelash extensions recently which was a DISASTER - so expensive and barely made a difference. And then as they grew out I kept picking at them and ripped out so many of my own lashes, so now I have stupid short, choppy lashes. Perhaps mascara isn't my biggest problem. 6. Chubby Stick Intense Moisturizing Lip Color Balm by Clinique. I love these and I have them in MANY colors. They look natural, and give your face a little pop without looking like "OH HEY GIRL CHECK OUT MY LIPSTICK." And you can apply it easily in the car or anywhere without a mirror because you can't really mess it up. Plus it's moisturizing and feels good. And kinda tastes good. I was a kid that ate chapstick, so theres that. SO. Those are mine. I'm loyal and I keep it pretty simple. I don't have boxes of eye shadow for a special occasion (although I do like this one). Every now and again I wear a brighter lip, or for on-camera work I put on lashes, but generally this is what I like on my face and many of those are universally good - it's not the color that I love, its the product. And now, dish.