If
you have recently driven by The Oaks Bed and Breakfast, and caught sight of our
garden, you will easily be able to see that we love flowers. All kinds of flowers are in bloom right now
and we cannot seem to get enough. Today
for “In the Garden” I wanted to focus on the Sunflowers. Now I’m the first to admit that when we
planted these beauties the first year I thought they were going to be these
beautiful, three foot tall or so flowers
that we could use to do cut flower arrangements for the rooms. Never in my wildest dreams did I think they
would grow to be what they are today.
I’m
sure a lot of their height and proliferation is due to cross pollination. After all the pollinating insects love our
flowers. You can find bees, butterflies
and other winged insects flying around the garden finding all the best places
to gather up pollen and spread that goodness around. Our sunflowers have taken on a life of their
own and I can only hope that they continue to do amazing as the years progress.
This
year I was a little more intentional with my flowers, believe it or not, and
actually planted some new varieties.
Alas, I only see one new variety growing this year, and I partially
think that is due to a huge rain that happened right after planting. I think the water washed the beds out a
little too much and then the birds swooped in to claim the uncovered seeds.
Needless
to say, the majority of our blooms are return plants from self-seeding. We still have a few varieties that growing, I
just wish from previous years, I had labeled them a little better when saving
seeds from the heads. This year, I will
be much more intentional with my system for seed saving so that I can produce a
larger variety of blooms for guests and neighbors to enjoy.
Sunflowers
have a short growing season each year, right at about 2-3 months. As you watch them grow you can see how the
heads follow the sun throughout the day.
Nature is truly amazing to watch and experience at how it adapts and
changes as time progresses. So much so,
that once the heads are fully developed they will face down and east
permanently to protect the seeds from solar radiation.
Since
their growing season is so quick you can direct sow seeds every few weeks to
ensure you have flowers all season long and into the fall. Many people who have pastures can plant
sunflowers to attract wildlife such as dove, to prepare for hunting season
later in the year. Sun flowers provide
food for wildlife and pollinators alike throughout the dryer summer months, and
can help support your actual garden that you use for food.
You
can grow a variety of sunflowers in your garden depending on what you are
looking to support. Cut flowers have
been engineered to not leave any messy pollen behind and come in a variety of
colors. The size of the heads vary from
3 inches to 12 inches depending on the type of flower. One of the best things about growing
sunflowers is their ability to return macronutrients to the soil.
Some
of the varieties that we have are Honey Bear sunflowers, that have more petals in
the center than traditional sunflowers. Three
of our traditional sunflowers are Chocolate Gold, Little Becka, and Strawberry
Blond among others. Our smallest
producing flower is the Mexican Sunflower, that blooms out a beautiful reddish
orange bloom. These are prolific and I
secretly want to spread them along the roadside of county roads to help
increase the pollinator population.
If
you have never tried to grow sunflowers before, just toss some seeds out or get
a bird feeder along with feed that has black oil sunflowers in the mix. Move it around your yard and see what pops
up. You will not be disappointed in your
sunflower production.
