Sunflower is blooming!

[applestar]

First sunflower opened... Facing the neighbor's house I have found that sunflowers will follow the sun while in bud, but first sunlight when the petals open locks it down. This is one of two volunteers -- so not planned -- at the end of the Haybale Squash Row, which is a WRONG location for sunflower (I mentioned elsewhere that most sunflower-ideal locations in my garden ends up with them facing AWAY from our house and looking at the neighbors )

...couldn't decide which I liked better -- the
over-exposed one with white background or
underexposed with some blue in the sky. :o)

I dug a bog garden in the far corner to capture the rainwater from the neighbor's downspout because the previous owner landscaped his yard to basically pipe everything to our side of the property line and that area was constantly soggy. You can see the pink Joe Pye weed starting to bloom. Other plants enjoying the extra moisture include Blue flag iris, Arum, Virginia sweetspire, Royal fern, White turtlehead, Winterberry, Cardinal flower, Ditch Daylily, and. Marshmallow hibiscus. The bog exits under the fence to the front yard. Across the spillway, the first fruit tree in the espalier fence row is a Prok persimmon.

Prok persimmons and Arkansas Black apples

A red osier dogwood on the other side of the fence looks very nice against the white picket fence, and most of the smaller bog flowers are grouped there along with a Husker Red Penstemmon and a tiny struggling blueberry. A swale directs the bog water to the base of my triple PawPaw planting dubbed "Paw and Paw and Baby Paw" and a developing clump of Elderberry.

I have another RainBog Garden at the base of one of our main roof rain gutter downspouts. A rainbarrel collects the water then double overflow hoses direct the rainwater here and to the "Ostrich Fern Alley." Top-right photo is my little patch of wildflowers across a little brick path from the RainBog Garden.

This water-loving Buttonbush is situated next to the rainbarrel overflow. The bees love the pompom blossoms.

[grwrn]

Ha! I too had a volunteer sunflower pop up and bloom and face the neighbors yard. I didn't know the bloom buds followed the sun until it was obvious and I looked it up. I now have a bloom bud growing at the back of the current bloom head and it is facing my direction to enjoy.

[DDMcKenna]

That is an awesome garden! Looks like a lot of time and effort in the form of loving care. And I really love sun-flowers and think I've only seen one, (in real life), in my life. Lots of pics but they are so amazing and I am very happy for you that you got to have a couple bloom like that.

[imafan26]

Sunflowers always face the east or where ever the rising sun first appears. It is fun to watch the faces turn to follow the sun until midday.

[Bobberman]

My sunflowers are in full bloom for about 2 weeks now. I have about 20 plants and a few of tham already have 20 flowers on one plant! I am starting new ones now from seed for the fall! I plant seeds of all kinds till the end of august!

[DDMcKenna]

My sunflowers are in full bloom for about 2 weeks now. I have about 20 plants and a few of tham already have 20 flowers on one plant! I am starting new ones now from seed for the fall! I plant seeds of all kinds till the end of august!

That would make an awesome garden, how about some pics?

[Bobberman]

I will see if I can figure out how to post them!

[DDMcKenna]

Just look at the very bottom of the text editor included in this forum. It provides a three step process to (browse for), then (Add Photo), and then, (Place Inline). Give the forum a moment to process the upload after you click "Add Photo" because the screen will change when the upload is complete and then you will be able to click the "Place Inline" which will place the photo where ever the cursor is blinking in the text editor.

[applestar]

Ha! I too had a volunteer sunflower pop up and bloom and face the neighbors yard. I didn't know the bloom buds followed the sun until it was obvious and I looked it up. I now have a bloom bud growing at the back of the current bloom head and it is facing my direction to enjoy.

The sunflower I posted about in the OP has MULTIPLE heads now, but STILL none of them is facing our house!

...plus now a 2nd plant is looking at the neighbor's

[DDMcKenna]

I guess the lesson is to plant them in a particular place in your yard so the blooms face the way you want them to. But I guess that mat not always be convenient either. But all the pics you have posted are so awesome. You really have a green thumb. Thank you for sharing them with us.

[applestar]

Thanks! And I love getting feedback and hearing that you are enjoying what I post

This year, I planted a fence row of them on this side of the house. Then the popcorn and pole beans got so tall I was afraid I wouldn't see the sunflowers (no upstairs window on this side), but the sunflowers are still growing so it looks like there is hope.

[applestar]

First one opened along the fence row

...YES! It's facing our house!

[applestar]

[applestar]

I love it when the seeds I optimistically planted with a vision in mind
comes true. It's really magical.

[applestar]

I keep taking new pictures thinking they look different

I'm going to save seeds from the tallest and biggest single headed one which seems to have extra long petals and from the multi headed one, I'm also saving seeds from the first biggest head in the other, super multi headed one in the Haybale squash row,

[DDMcKenna]

Those are really cool. Is this one a plant you just recently planted? how long does it take for it to grow? I guess I should ask if you plant them from seed or little baby plants and how long does it take to grow full size and produce a bloom like that.

I am wondering if sunflowers would work here along the east coast of central Florida. I haven't seen one down here.

[applestar]

Here's an excerpt from the May8 post when it all started (well, two days before)
Subject: 2014 pre-germinating/sprouting experiment Peas, Corn, Curcs

Did I mention I'm trying sunflowers and beets now? Started soaking them two nights ago and after full day of rinse and drain, the sunflower seeds have already started to germinate....

The thread isn't just about sunflowers but follows the sunflower progression until somewhere along the line, I mention continuing the sunflowers in another thread and provide the link.

[applestar]

The first to open large flower head and an couple of the next to open lateral heads of the tall super multi-headed sunflower from the OP (8-9 feet tall) and the single large headed short sunflower next to it (only about 6 feet tall) were ready to harvest today, so I took a last photo before beheading them.

Super multi-headed one is growing small lateral flower heads from
practically EVERY leaf node.

single head has striped white seeds. The super multi-head appear to have
black seeds.

The sunflower fence row has multi-headed plants as well as single large headed plants as well, and I've tagged three of them to save seeds from.

...I left those seed heads on the patio table to dry in the sun for the afternoon. Normally I would look out over the patio from the window above several times in the afternoon, but I wasn't able to today.... And 1/2 of one of the smaller heads had been eaten and pecked out by the time I went to bring them inside just a little while ago! I think it might have been the male cardinal (and probably his mate) I heard making a lot of noise outside, and I saw him going around the corner from another window in that direction,

If I didn't have so many sunflowers to harvest this year, I would be upset. As it is I'm just amused by their opportunistic behavior.

[applestar]

That crazy multi-head is growing flower buds from every node. It seems a bit strange to me.....

Maybe this was a bird-dropped seed from a wild bird food mix and it's some kind of a hybrid B.O.S.S. variety bred to make maximum amount of seeds....

alternatively, can sunflower (Helianthus annuus) cross with Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)? Jerusalem artichoke I think tries to grow flower buds like this, and my patch is located not 10 feet from the sunflowers that I thought had dropped these seeds were growing.....

[applestar]

Jerusalem Artichoke/Sunchoke are starting to bloom

[applestar]

[HoneyBerry]

Beautiful garden! Now I want s buttonbush plant. I just looked it up and it works in my zone.
I love your sunflowers. I used to grow big ones but now I grow them small in the shade.

[rainbowgardener]

Gorgeous! How tall are they now?

[Rairdog]

Beautiful garden! Now I want s buttonbush plant. I just looked it up and it works in my zone.
I love your sunflowers. I used to grow big ones but now I grow them small in the shade.

I have plenty of BB seeds. They are slow to germinate(2-3 weeks) and need covered with seran wrap for humidity(80 plus deg). This was my first year trying them. They are about 1' tall. I need to try and transplant them along the river bank. They need swampy soil. My river was so out of control I have not had a chance to put them in the ground. PM me if you want some seeds.


My sunflower finally bloomed. Most all got swamped. This one has 5 more blooms coming at lower branching. The only ones I planted were Velvet Queen. It looks ALOT darker than the pic.


After some searching there seems to be 2 different colors?

Can sunflowers be started inside easily? I assume they have a tap root that can be damaged when transplanting. Missy really like them and wants more next year and get them to bloom earlier.

[applestar]

I tried but had trouble with the taproot in small containers. Maybe if you start them in straight sided water or soda bottles? But spindly growth, and high rate of mortality after planting in my experience.

My solution for the last couple of years has been to pre-germinate them in a seed sprouter (very quick, about 4-5 days) then sow the seeds when just the root tip is showing (up to curled 1/2" at most). Nice thing about doing it this way is that they ALL come up where planted. Still have to deal with slugs, etc. loss, but much more predictable.

[applestar]

Gorgeous! How tall are they now?

I eye-balled the height today and they look about 8-9 ft (3-4 ft taller than the 5ft fence)

[applestar]

Champagne Cherry tomato is using this as support...

[applestar]

2016 sunflowers are blooming!

I didn't plant any intentionally this year because I was going to rotate them out. But squirrels and chipmunks had other ideas and I had volunteers popping up. So I relented and let some of them grow. They ARE fun to grow just to watch the flowerbuds follow the sun during the day while they are green, the size some of them can grow to...


... and the way they unfold facing the direction the first sunshine hits them in the morning ...

^^^^
This has been a source of consternation, puzzlement, and confoundment for me when I first started growing them as I mentioned before.


Here's the one that flowered in the Sunflower & House this year. It is basically facing the house even though with the direction the sun rises, it should have been facing more to our left. I thought the reason was because all morning as the sun travels and casts tree shadows where the sunflower is located, the sun reflects off the upstairs windows INTO the SF&H. This explains the way it is looking up towards the upstairs window.



But I realized there is ANOTHER reason. I have a heavy duty photographer's daylight CFL bulb atop a torchere floor lamp that I have been using in the Green Room. It's on a timer and I had been adjusting it to turn on at sunrise until around Summer Solstice when most of the plants in the Green Room were taken out. But NOW that the sun is rising later and later, that lamp turns on BEFORE sunrise. And I realized when I was looking out of the window in the pre-dawn dimness that the lamp had turned on and was lighting up the backyard through the uncovered upper windowpanes, including the SF&H. NO wonder the poor sunflower became confused.

---

THIS ONE now. It's is definitely NOT looking at the house. It is NOT looking eastward toward sunrise. It is, in fact, looking directly Southeast, which in summertime, is WAY past dawn.... BUT you can see by the way it is looking up at the trees -- the gap in the trees where it sees the first sunlight of the day

[applestar]

As viewed from the kitchen window
-- it's a multi-headed sunflower -- each newly opened bud has faced the house, forcing previously opened older blossom(s) to turn aside ....

[applestar]

Birds are nibbling on these already -- Squirrels will find this soon and destroy it -- breaking off flower stalks and leaves, so glad I got a good photo before then

[ButterflyLady29]

I had plans of planting a sunflower patch this summer. Like so many other plans they didn't get put into place. At least I have your lovely pictures to enjoy.

I have a small patch of perennial sunflowers that are now blooming. I though I had dug them all up (gave some away, sold some for some decent $$$) and am really glad to have these few still. The flowers are not very big and they don't produce very many seeds but they are all I have this year.

[applestar]

Not as impressive this year, but the bees and butterflies are enjoying them, and soon the squirrels, chipmunks, and the birds will, too.

[HoneyBerry]

Here's my sunflower.

[applestar]

Beauty! Looks like a big one. Is it a named variety?

[HoneyBerry]

Volunteer bird seed sunflower, the typical black striped seeds.

[HoneyBerry]

Oops, I meant the black oil sunflower seeds, not the striped kind.
It is big, over 12".