Cosmos
I got stuck with cosmos as my island home flower, and personally I don't like the look of them. There are 3 hybrid varieties, Orange, Pink, and Black. Orange and Pink are some of the easiest hybrids to get, but Black cosmos are different than many other black flowers. Black cosmos have a similar rarity to many purple varieties (e.g. pansies, tulips).
How to get each hybrid
| Hybrid Color | Parent 1 | Parent 2 | Chance | Other possible colors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange | Red (seed) | Yellow (seed) | 100% | - |
| Pink | Red (seed) | White (seed) | 100% | - |
| Black | Orange | Orange | < 6.25% | Anything |
To Mass Produce Black Cosmos
Mass production of Orange and Pink cosmos is fairly straightforward, so I will focus on Black cosmos here.
- Produce a large amount of Orange hybrids from a Red (seed) and Yellow (seed). You can plant the Red and Yellow hybrids in any of these patterns
- This actually produces Orange hybrids with two possible genetic codings. The coding doesn't matter too much, it just slightly alters the percentages in Step 2.
- Plant the Orange hybrids together into one plot in a dense pattern and wait until a Black cosmos appears.
- Only about 1/16 of the hybrids here will be Black cosmos, and many of them will be Orange. The chances depend on the Orange hybrid genetics.
- Continue to add orange hybrids from Step 1 if you have more space.
- It's perfectly fine to add orange hybrids that you may get from this step to the Orange plot. All of the orange hybrids made in Step 3 can produce Black hybrids, and some may make Black hybrids faster.
- Once you get a Black cosmos, it's best to try to get it to self-clone (see here for more details).
- If you are short on space, you can start to replace the plot of Orange hybrids from Step 2 with Black cosmos, which will increase your chances of getting more Black cosmos. Most Black and Orange pairs will produce hybrids that are Black cosmos 25% of the time (sometimes this is 50%).
- You can also try planting the Black cosmos in a separate dense pattern, but some of the Black cosmos hybrids can occasionally make Red cosmos when bred together.
Details: Genetics of each flower
Cosmos use 3 genes: R, Y, S.
| Name | Genetics |
|---|---|
| White (seed) | rr-yy-Ss |
| Red (seed) | RR-yy-ss |
| Yellow (seed) | rr-YY-Ss |
| Pink | Rr-yy-Ss, Rr-yy-ss |
| Orange | Rr-Yy-Ss, Rr-Yy-ss, and others |
| Black | RR-YY-Ss or RR-YY-ss |