Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum L.)

Cotton (Gossypium herbaceum L.): we propose this species to keep the memory of the time it was cultivated to produce garments, to dye them, past times where the wise hands of the family took everything they needed to live from their own fields and gardens. It seems magical now that everything is replaced by industrial processes. The cotton plant is exceptionally rustic, perennial in the absence of frosts, it produces many fruits that open and expose the seeds wrapped in very dense hairs, which will become, once spun, the fabric we all know. It does not have special soil needs, it germinates easily in about a week, in the North it is cultivated as annual,   while in the South as perennial, hence the difference in sowing. It can be grown in pots to give colour to the balcony, the flowers are highly ornamental as well as the fruits when they open. Reproducing the seeds is extremely easy: just store the "cotton balls" in a dry environment to extract the seeds with part of the fluff and sow them. This cultivar was gifted to us a few years ago by a Sicilian friend, but we have no certain information about its history (Sicily produced a fair amount of cotton). Beautiful also as a centerpiece.