Sunflowers

Despite the appauling Wirral weather my sunflowers have been magnificent. I started lots off from seed, nurtured them as they grew and finally planted them out in May.

The slugs had a party.

In the end I was left with just three survivors, two yellow and one black. Despite that they seemed determined to make up for the loss and, like Topsy, grew and grew and grew.

Both of the yellow ones towered over me and were about 7' high!

Here's a bee having a wonderful time on the larger head.

The black sunflower did not grow as high and the seed head is not as large, but he certainly is pretty.

Sadly, we had gales on Monday night and I found the smaller of the two yellow sunflowers broken in two. I'm keeping the seed head for the birds, as I will do with the other one when it has finished flowering.

Next year I'm just going to sprinkle the seeds directly on the ground and see what happens. Hopefully there will be a bed full of sunflowers to brighten up a wet and windy August.