Sunflower

This spring, Jeff received a free packet of sunflower seeds from the bank. Since I had an empty flower pot, I decided to plant them and see what happened.

I planted 9 seeds and one started to grow. The squirrels dug up the rest of the seeds. How do the squirrels know that you just planted seeds ? I had some left over bird seed, so took some of those sunflower seeds and planted them. Again the squirrels dug them up. I gave up and focused on this one tiny plant.

Surprisingly, the sunflower started to grow and was soon 3 feet tall. That is when the woodchuck struck and stripped off the first 2 feet of leaves. I thought the sunflower would die.

However, this plant was a fighter and continued to grow. I watered it daily and fertilized weekly. Finally the flower began to form and when we returned from vacation the flower was finally open!

As you can see, the sunflower is about 10 feet tall. The face is usually covered with bumble bees. It is amazing that one little seed can produce such a large plant.