For many years now I have been trying to grow Cosmos and Rudbeckias in addition to other seasonal flowers. I had many failures but come the cooler weather I start again. I have sown Several packets of seeds both of Cosmos and Rudbeckias last Nov. to benefit from cooler temp and hopefully some rain and have tried different locations in the garden and in pots. Some germinated but the majority died. The only Cosmos we have is this small specimen in the photo. The seeds were given to me two years ago by Marcus Mariani in Vellentri when we visited his garden. He had some beautiful specimens growing. Ours never reached that height but it is resilient. It came back again this summer and it is still in flower. I hope it will , year by year, grow taller. Only four Rudbeckias survived. Three are average height but not flowers yet and one over 5 foot. It flowered yesterday. You can see the top of my head in the photo. You would ask why do I go through this charade every year. I read the RHS magazine and the photos of the Summer flowers make me want to have another try. One lives in hope....