Spanish priests cultivated cosmos plants in their mission gardens and were so taken with the evenly placed petals they christened the flower ‘Cosmos’, the Greek word for ‘ordered universe of harmony’.
The wife of the English ambassador to Spain brought seeds from Mexico to England in the late 1700s. While initially struggling in the cooler climate, breeding programs over the next century resulted in varieties with brighter colors, fancier petals, and even double blossoms.