Sunflowers

      Linda Rosenberger smiles a lot.  You would too if you had a row of sunflowers smiling on you from  your kitchen island.  A single bloom in a mason jars, but 7 jars of sunflowers.  Beautiful
   The sunflowers have such lovely names as Lemon Queen, Tall Teddy, Procut Red  and Mexican Sunflower.

                     Linda's grouping

   Linda has been raising these beauties for about  5 years.  Some of them volunteered from last year’s plants, but most were fresh starts from seed she bought from Amazon.  This spring was a challenge due to the weather, some got a late start.  She likes the variety that sunflowers have and the fact that they are easy to grow.

                   Mexican Sunflower

The flower heads follow the sun, that’s how they got their name.
Heliotrpism is the word describing flower heads moving toward the sun.  Once the flower matures and it is not actively photosynthesizing, then it remains stationary It will hang with th weight of the growing seeds.  The seeds are arranged in a Fibonacci Spiral to pack as many seeds as possible in a small space.
   Sunflowers were popular in the Victorian era, then interest was lost.  But in the past few years they have once again climbed in favor with decorators and gardeners.  Some grow over 6 feet high while other varieties have large blossom with 2 to 3 feet plants.  Seeds should be widely spaced at planting, at least 12 inches apart.
   The blooms can be dried using silica gel.  And of course the winter birds love the seeds.

Sunflowers waving in the wind

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