2015
2015 Sunflowers story
The two rightmost pictures below are of a sunflower that nearly died after going over a week without water. I thought there was no hope for it, but it is no growing as happily as a pot bound sunflower can on my windowsill. Its parent is the first sunflower I planted in 2012. The third and fourth pictures below are of a sunflower that sprouted by itself (left, both pictures), its parent being the big sunflower that came with us when we moved house and a sunflower (right, both pictures) of different variety; its parent also moved house with us. Both sunflowers have aphids currently, a variety in which those with wings are white and those without a pale green. The left sunflower has had some brown spots appearing on its leaves since I photographed it. These aphids make the leaves go yellow and die, rather than eating them. The rightmost picture is of two siblings, who, like their sibling on the left in the third and fourth pictures, sprouted by themselves. They too, have this same variety of aphids. I have never yet managed to plant a sunflower out before it got pot bound.
2014
2014 Sunflowers story
![Picture](/uploads/1/9/5/1/19518505/2850041.jpg?285)
Many Sunflowers were planted, but I don't quite know what became of them all. One of them had it's top eaten off by a slug, another two suffered a slug or snail eating the stem so thin; which resulted in them dying. That's all the bad news I can remember, here's the rest. One sunflower grew one head, which was often visited by bees and bumblebees. It did not flower for long as a result, but it did produce seeds. If it hadn't been pulled up, I think it may have produced more heads. Another also produced seeds, and that left two. Now, I forgot to mention that after the unexpected death of the first sunflower mentioned, I was too scared to plant my next one out. (The one whose heads are pictured below). In the end I planted it in the vegetable box on wheels, though some slugs and snails did get into the box, it was safer in there than anywhere else. Then the aphids moved in. Once the sunflower grew above my reach, I could no longer kill the aphids at its new bud. I eventually gave in to my family and used LDC. The aphids died. (Just planted out: http://trotterfieldstables.weebly.com/uploads/1/9/5/1/19518505/5492811.jpg). Going back to my reluctance to plant this sunflower out, it became the most pot-bound plant I ever grew. No it didn't, two others did, there were no milk bottles to put around them to protect them from slugs and snails, so they stayed in their post until we had gone through some more milk. I have never in my life planted out a sunflower before it gets too pot bound. Then we moved house. You are probably going to wonder how we could ever get an approximately 7-8 tall plant to a house 2 hours away (it took 3 because of the traffic), well we did it. There was another that grew 7 or 8 heads in total, but it was maybe... about...4 feet? That's probably wrong...Anyway; it fitted in the van. Then there was the question of this sunflower. I really get attached to these plants, it was so hard watching it be roughly handled as the movers tried to fit it into the van. In the end we used my back-up plan and cut off its top heads and put them in a box (as shown below). The plant been considerably shorter could now fit, and once we'd moved in the heads found their into a vase of water. Both sunflowers lived until about somewhere in September. Some of the seeds from each have been harvested. I am writing this now in January 2015, and those plants are still out there, providing nice perches and seed-feeders for birds, especially tits and chaffinches. Click on the pictures below for an enlarged view and the captions.
2013
2013 Sunflowers story
I planted one of my first 2012 sunflower's (also known as the medium sunflower) seeds, and another seed that didn't work and I later replaced. any way, the first seed had sprouted and the seedling was big enough to go out. Three days later slugs ate part of the stem. It died.
The other sunflower's seed leaves started to die while the seed husk was still on, but the seed husk fell off and now it is growing healthily. And It survived!
The other sunflower's seed leaves started to die while the seed husk was still on, but the seed husk fell off and now it is growing healthily. And It survived!
2012
2012 Sunflowers story
The first one that I planted got a cat scratch and I wondered if it would survive, but it did. Another had its seed leaves eaten of by a slug. Then it was over watered. It died. Two didn't sprout, and the 49 headed one, while it was the size that it is in the photo above, had the bottom of the stem eaten a bit. It had to be tied to a bamboo stick. I thought it wouldn't survive but it did. It grew at least 49 heads! Another grew 5 or 6 heads. The first Sunflower that I mentioned grew 2 heads, though one was tiny.