Cosmos not blooming???

[MimmyMel]

My cosmos are about 5 foot tall and don't have a bud one on them! They are nice and green and the stems look more like stalks about an inch around. Are they going to bloom or should I chop them down like my husband is suggesting?? He thinks it's just a tall weed lol! Is he right???

My cosmos, which has come up year after year, hasn't grown at all. It normally grows over 6 foot.
The cosmos seeds that were planted this year haven't come up either.
Most of my seeds, planted this year, have failed.

A bit like @Isthisrealomgwow, I am quite envious of your cosmos. I have one which is about 2cm tall and that is the only sign of one packet!

Does it get lots of sun where it is? Or would it in a normal summer?

Did you pinch them out? If not, I find you just get tall bushy stalks - I’ve had this when I’ve missed pinching the odd one. The other thing is they thrive in terrible conditions, so if you’ve treated them well they may not bloom! Don’t feed them, water them sparingly and then I find they go bonkers.

This year, mine haven’t bloomed yet, but I sowed them late. I do have buds though so I know they’re coming. I’d be tempted to Chelsea chop yours and see if that stimulates growth including buds.

I grow them from seed every year and every year they're a success. Until now...one out of four is growing well but no buds but hopefully there's still time and somethingt o look forward to in September

They will (probably) bloom, but later. The best tip I read to avoid cosmos trees is to leave them in their pots until they're budding up, then plant out. The theory is that the lack of resources in the pot pushes them to bud early, because they want to flower and set seed before they die. As soon as you see they're forming buds, you can plant out and then they'll flower.

Also definitely pinch, it looks like you have though.

Mine aren't quite flowering yet but well on the way. Some are still tiny though, just not enough sun to get them going.

Tell him you’ll get rid if they haven’t flowered by 1 September

A few years ago I had some which grew tall and some of them didn't really get into full bloom till October, but then they went all the way through to the first frost at the very end of November. I'd cut some of them before that so I had flowers in the house till mid December.

I would prune the tallest stems a bit and make sure the plant is in the sun for plenty of hours a day.

I'm not an expert however some varieties of cosmos are short-day plants and prefer to begin to flower with longer nights and shorter days. I haven't got time to find the best references however there is info on the web. Hopefully yours will flower in August or September.

info on plant flowering 1

more info