Mona's Orange Cosmos, Organic

A Chance Discovery in the Oklahoma Heartland

In the summer of 1963, Mona Hardin, a passionate home gardener from Lawton, Oklahoma, USA, spotted something extraordinary blooming amid the dusty prairie weeds near her rural homestead. Among the usual wildflowers stood a striking plant with vivid tangerine-orange daisy-like blooms (2-3" wide) on slender 3-4 ft stems—a rogue volunteer that didn't match any catalog variety.

Mona, undeterred by its mystery origins (likely a natural mutation or escaped heirloom of Cosmos sulphureus, blending Mexican wild cosmos genes with American soil), harvested the seeds and sowed them in her garden the next year. The plants thrived in Oklahoma's hot, dry summers, self-seeding reliably and attracting butterflies and hummingbirds like magnets. Word spread through local garden clubs, and by the late 1970s, Mona's "orange cosmo" seeds were traded at seed swaps across the Southwest.