Margaret, we grow cotton for the bees. It gets big. Well, about 3' tall anyway. Not sure about it as a houseplant.
We had some seeds left from two years ago and my son asked me to plant it this year. About a 5 qt. bucket of seeds, still in the cotton. I only had a small area but I wanted to get rid of it so I took handfuls and scraped back the soil, plopped the cotton down and scruffed the soil back over it. It grew well. Now I have another 5 qt. bucket of seeds...
In my experience, it's not too fussy but if you don't have success with your seeds just let me know and I'll be happy to send you some more.
