This past July 4th, several gardeners on Twitter were lamenting the fact that they hadn't planted sunflowers yet this summer, and I was one of them. After commiserating about our oversight, we decided we would plant them anyway and see what happened. What did we have to lose but a few seeds?
These were seeds I'd received as a free promotion from Natorp's Garden Stores at the Cincinnati Flower Show earlier this year. The seed packet had a coupon on the back of it, which I used, so I don't know which variety of sunflowers these are. (I'd emptied the seeds into a plastic bag for planting later.)
They don't have large flower heads, which may be normal for this variety, or it could be just another result of being planted late. I really don't know. I could probably contact Natorp's and find out which type these are.
In any case, we're enjoying their beautiful sunny blooms and so are the insects - sometimes all of them at once!
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| A bumblebee, spotted cucumber beetle, and CabbageWhite butterfly feast at the nectar table together. |
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| The flower buds remind me of camera's aperture. |
"Bejeweled"
12 comments:
Your sunflowers are lovely. I've never planted them either. I will try my own next year.They seem happy and sunny and just make me smile!
I too always forget to plant sunflowers and then regret it when all the great photos start showing up in blogs! Next year, next year!
Debra ~ And they're so easy! I've had them come up volunteer under the bird feeders, too.
Sheila ~ Nice to know that they're forgiving of our forgetfulness, isn't it? Check out all the amazing varieties there are, too!
We also planted our sunflower seeds late with the same wonderful results! Nice to know we weren't alone! These are simply beautiful photos.
You are lucky to have sunflowers platned so late, or sunflwoers at all. I've had black sunflower stem weevils snipping off blooms left and right, psoted on it last week. do you have those? They make perfect straight cuts through the stems jsut below the blooms.
You've captured the blooms and critters perfectly. How, funny, I'm working on a sunflower post now. The flowers are so fascinating. I prefer smaller plants with smaller flowers, as they are easier to fit into the garden.
Kimberly ~ Thank you! Sunflowers just can't help but make you smile!
Benjamin ~ Oh no! I didn't even know about these weevils. Gack! Another garden pest to worry about!
MMD ~ Thanks! You'd like these then. The plants are about 3½ feet tall, some are a bit taller, some a little shorter. I was just glad to get blooms since they were planted so late!
The late ones will be great for fall arrangements!
lovely, somthing so cheerfull about sunflowers
hey kylee,
sunflowers are just fun to have around no matter the size. glad you went ahead and stuck your seeds in the ground. i started a late pumpkin patch and am waiting to see what happens with it.
happy september.
ps say hi to your mom for me.
I didn't plant any sunflowers either, but a few plant themselves in my greenhouse every summer, and we've just harvested them for the birds to enjoy. Next year, I will plant sunflowers outside again, and that should do the trick for four or five years worth of reseeding.
What a beauty! I'm glad to know they can be planted later than usual and still bloom.
I don't know if I was late planting my Mexican sunflowers, but they started blooming later than last year.
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