Cosmos (flower) is classed tender in the cited extension guidance. The timing rules below are relative to your local freeze dates — enter a location to turn them into calendar dates.
The rules this site applies
Method
Frost-relative window
Rule & reconciliation
Transplant outdoors
from the median last spring freeze to 2 weeks after
NC Cooperative Extension (Pender County) names cosmos among the large-seeded flowers to transplant outdoors after the threat of frost, giving a two-week set-out window from the last-frost date.
Direct-sow outdoors
from the median last spring freeze to 2 weeks after
The NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox (both C. bipinnatus and C. sulphureus entries) and Utah State University Extension agree that cosmos seed goes into the ground once all danger of frost has passed, giving a two-week window from the last-frost date; the accompanying 65F soil requirement is not frost-anchored and was not encoded.
Variety assumption: Covers both common annual garden species (C. bipinnatus and C. sulphureus); no indoor_start rule is encoded because no extension page was found that states a frost-relative indoor-sowing offset for cosmos - Pender County's indoor date is a fixed North Carolina calendar date (mid-March), which the frost-anchored engine cannot honestly express.