This spring I bought Cosmos fizzy mix. A mix of regular cosmoses and “fizzy variety”.

Cosmos is a Mexican native plant that belongs to the family of Asteraceae. Over the centuries it spread all over the world. This plant was in our granny’s cottage garden many years ago.
Cosmos is an annual half-hardy plant that in good conditions can self-sow for several years giving the impression of a perennial plant. The height of cosmos plants varies from 0,60m to 2m. Height depends on a variety of cosmos and weather and soil conditions. It can come in almost every color, they can be double-colored, with simple flowers, double flowers or they can be picotee.
Cosmos can be attacked by aphids and since they don’t like too much moisture it’s possible they get infected with gray mold or powdery mildew.

Fizzy formula mix is a cultivated variety of the herbaceous plant Cosmos Bipinnatus(garden cosmos).

The mix contains simple “regular” shaped flowers and flowers with fizzy picotee petals. 
Leaves are also simple, pinnate, and very delicate.Sowing cosmoses depends on the hardiness zone. Fizzy mix can be planted outside only after the danger of frost has passed(in my case middle of May). To germinate plant needs 7-14 days and need a temperature of 24°C. That is why I plant my cosmoses in pots in early April (4-6 weeks before transplanting them outside). They are kept in a frost-free environment in the greenhouse. At beginning of May, I start accustoming them to our normal weather conditions. They spend every day outside and night in the greenhouse. Few days before transplanting pots stay outside overnight and then they are transplanted to the garden.
Fizzy cosmoses like sunny beds, with well-drained soil. They don’t like too much rain or their leaves start rotting. They also don’t like drought, plants start drying.

Fizzy cosmoses usually grow from 60-90cm. I wrote usually because my cosmoses grew 1,3m and some of the flowers go another 10-20cm higher.
This plant is very delicate so it doesn’t tolerate wind. The best way to keep them from getting damaged is by sowing them in groups. Sometimes when winds are too strong even this is not enough so I had to place support poles to keep them from falling down.

First flowers blossom 60 days from sowing. They bloom from early summer till fate fall and first frost. Flowers can be used for bouquets or left to brighten our gardens. To prolong flower season remove dead flowers.

If you want to collect seeds let them dry.
To collect seeds leave flowers to completely dry, lose petals and turn brown. Pull the seed heads off and place them on a seed drying rack. If you don’t have one place them on a tray with a paper towel to prevent water condensation. Leave flower heads on the tray for few days to completely dry. When they dry separate small brown/black seed pods from the rest of the flower head.
Store seeds in paper bags till next year. Only when seeds are completely dry they can be moved to plastic zip bags.