The side garden has gone through resuscitative treatment. The herbs clipped and watered. The tomatoes lifted (pulling held off, damn little green orbs!). Dead cosmos yanked. Cosmos that only produced super fat greens yanked. All flowers dead-headed. Asters staked. Weeds pulled. Still flowering phlox chopped to allow new flowering shoots. Max sunflowers tied back. Sidewalk swept. Garbage bagged. Hey, New Dawn is flowering again. The natives I planted right before we left have done well. Looking forward to October -that's when all that I learned about the side yard this year will be put into action.
I took these photos before I left for Minnesota. One branch on one plant of cosmos is producing these elongated disc flowers. I've seen this before, maybe once or twice in a lifetime. What causes it? My immediate thought is something hormonal, something viral, or maybe just a common expression of a recessive gene. 
Not all are the same length. They tend to stay green, or greenish yellow -unlike the normal cosmos disc flowers which are a strong yellow.
Once my camera batteries charge up, I'll take some new photos. The elongated disc flowers look a little different now, almost resembling yellow-green aster flowers to which family cosmos belong.This evening we will be off to the beach farm to see how that has held up. We can expect anything.
Weird. But I have to say that viruses and bacteria and even fungi have sort of mutated. Global warming, as usual.
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