sunflower
Summer Ends with Sunflower Seeds
The last of the giant sunflowers fell today, but the birds haven't gotten to it. So we have a cool giant sunflower head full of seeds for next season.
Lemon Queen Sunflower (Helianthus)
Lemon Queen sunflower is a pale yellow multi-branched sunflower that grows to 8 feet and produces an abundance of bottom-to-top flowers over a long bloom period
Summer at Last!
Just a quick video of a hummingbird darting into the garden to see what I was doing with this sunflower
The Gorgeous Symmetry of the Sunflower
Find the pattern of sunflower seeds in a drying head attractive and fascinating? It's because you're looking at nature's golden ratio, the Fibonnaci sequence
Midday Traffic on the Sunflower Roundabout
You can tell these three bees are American left-hand drive bees because they're doing their pollen gathering counter-clockwise.
Photo of the Day: Moulin Rouge Sunflower
I like sunflowers so I sprinkle them around the acre to add some visual interest and keep the birds and bees happy. This one is Moulin Rouge, which I picked up along with a number of other varieties from @johnys_seeds. The depth of the red color in this one is a real show stopper.
Busy Bee
Bees never take a day off.
Happy 4th of July
Blue skies, yellow sunflowers and Old Glory. Happy 238th birthday America!
Mexican Sunflower
This is a Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia). Native to tropical regions of Mexico, it grows and reproduces quite easily here in San Diego County. This particular plant is nearly 20 feet tall and produces a profusion of yellow flowers from May through September. After the bloom, I chop it back to about 3 feet tall and it spends the winter and early Spring re-growing.
Sunflowers know summer is here
Summer unofficially begins this weekend and as if on cue, Mother Nature is delivering warm weather and clear skies. The sunflowers, which have been languishing all spring, seem to know this and are responding accordingly. It's almost as if this Kong sunflower is lifting its face and drinking the sunshine in today.