I have planted Sonatas before, but to save me I cannot remember what their seedlings were like. I mulch pretty heavily in my beds, so don't usually get alot of them. You are remembering well from Biology class. If Sonata is a hybrid variety (and I do not know that it is), then its offspring will be a mixture of Sonata's parentage. The results you are reporting certainly do sound like hybrid volunteers. If you're really interested in doing it, you can, over a period of years create your own selected strain. Wait until the plants bloom each year, and then pull out all the undesirables before they set seed, and allow the desirables to set seed. Over the years, as the good ones re-seed, you will have a bigger and bigger percentage of good versus bad. (This assumes, of course, that they don't have the chance to cross pollinate with other cosmos somewhere nearby.) On the other hand, Sonata seed are easy to find and inexpensive to buy. Your choice.

I grow leeks every year with some success. By October they are about an inch to an inch and one half in diameter with a few larger. They are so great in chohdaws made with good New England seafood. I grow in raised beds that are ten or 15 years old. I "made" the soil years ago by screening lots of ordinary goood loam, adding peat moss, homemade compost, autumn chopped leaves, a bit of seaweed and eel grass and store bought manure. I use a low maintenance approach to the beds adding a bit of autumn leaves, more screened loam, and composted manure each year augmented by one of the Garden Tone fertilizers....whatever is on sale in October(Fertilizers don't go in until planting). I plant store bought plants in April setting them in a trench and add the dirt as they grow. I have recently read in some esoteric journal, that even this trenching is not necessary to get a large white portion, as this is built into their genes dependant upon their variety. Sure enough, the year that I just stuck the plants into a dibble hole, they came out the same way. I don't consider them a high maintenance plant. They do take a long time to grow and need a degree of patience. So stick them in the ground, feed and water them well, wait, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Lazygardens: Thank you. I will immediately go outside and water to a depth of 6". I selectively read the care advice below. Duh? I didn't apply common sense. I missed the clue that plants would become tall and spindly if I were overwatering. "Yellow cosmos needs only basic care to provide a colorful abundance of blooms all summer long. After the seedlings emerge, water VERY SPARINGLY. In lieu of any rainfall during an entire month, give the planting bed a long, slow drink. Cosmos is drought tolerant, providing abundant blooms with less water than most other annuals. Herein lies the "problem" which many people encounter when growing cosmos -- they "over-care" for their cosmos plants. "Over-care" means too much water, too much fertility and too much shade. When "over-care" occurs, cosmos becomes tall and spindly (even when the new, lower-growing varieties are used), and blooms sparsely. John Thomas says that the best growers of cosmos practice "tough-love" plant culture. "Tough-love" watering means only watering when the cosmos foliage begins to wilt."

I pot them up and see what they do. Consider them free Japanese maples. You can water them where they're at this summer and then put them in pots in late winter or early spring. Then grow them up to see what they do as far as fall color, growth rate, new growth color, seed color, etc. Mike