Sorry, just saw your post.
Hi Carole. Like you, was quite an adventure with our giant marigold. We never did get viable seed formed but had no reason to think the plant itself wasn't healthy.
Interested to hear of your experience with cosmos; think they're very pretty annuals. I know that there's quite a size range among the cosmos that different seed strains produce. Sorry to heard that your giants had signs of a disease. I hadn't heard of Curly Top Virus, but it's apparently transmitted by a leafhopper.
I'm pretty sure, as others suggested, our giant was simply bought as the result of a misplaced greenhouse seed of a giant variety. As said, I'd think it was an otherwise healthy giant.
