These two favourites in the Dumfriesshire Garden couldn’t be more contrasting. One perennial, one annual. One lover of the semi-damp of the arboretum. The other more at home in a sunny, drier border. One first planted as bulbs that gradually bulk up. The other beginning life each year in a seed tray, before potting on and planting out.
I’ve written quite a bit about cammasias. They originate in the Pacific North West and have a central place in the lives of the Indigenous peoples of that region, particularly the Quamash, from whom their name derives and who cultivated them as a food source and a ritual object.
The cammasias in the Dumfrieshire Garden are growing in a circle of meadow grass surrounded by nine mop top beech trees, and seem at home there. Their shoots start appearing in late April and are usually in flower around the second week of May. They make a thrilling sight, though perhaps a little less so this year for some reason – possibly the nibbling of night time visitors. I have started gathering cammasia seed recently and scattering it in other parts of the garden, but I’m told it can take five or more years from germination to flowering – so nothing to report just yet.
By contrast, cosmos is an annual that needs to be grown from scratch each year. I sow in seed trays in April, germination is swift and I pot on as soon as a few proper leaves appear, then plant out in June-July when the weather warms up. Sowing to flowering is just a few months.
The name, Cosmos, is of course wonderfully symbolic and speaks of order, balance and harmony. Or it may derive from the Greek kósmima, referring to its jewel like qualities. In recent years I’ve had a lot of success with white varieties of cosmos, especially if I remember to keep dead-heading, but this year I tried one called ‘coral’ and as the pictures show, it proved very attractive, if perhaps not so heavy on flowers. I’ll maybe try both next year. A few packets of seed will go a long way with this excellent annual.
The full list of pieces that make up my A-Z in the Dumfriesshire Garden in 2024 can be found here: https://davidgrahamclark.net/a-z-of-the-dumfriesshire-garden-in-2024/
Quotidian 