Sunflowers

Not sure if it's because of the weather or my extraordinary gardening abilities, but I have the loveliest crop of sunflowers this year!

For Mother's Day, Steve and Stacy sent me 7 different cultivars of unique sunflowers which I planted around the garden in various places.  Additionally, the birds did a really good job of "planting" the black oil sunflower seeds that were in the bird feeder.  As a result, I have a lovely display of bright yellow blooms with three of the unique cultivars yet to bloom.

First, these are the ones planted by the birds and coming up in such abundance that I can scarcely walk down the path any more!

A bit later in the season, the sunflowers look beautiful next to the yarrow and the purple coneflowers.  I'm really quite proud of my rain barrel and I've gotten a lot of use from it this summer.  The sunflower heads are really pretty large and I'm hoping to get some seeds for replanting.

 

'Autumn Beauty'

The new cultivars have multiple heads instead of single blooms so I'm really looking forward to seeing them in full glory this fall.

'Autumn Beauty' now stands about 5 feet high with multiple heads, but only one has bloomed so far.

'Italian White'

'Italian White' has already bloomed multiple times with the very palest of yellow flowers on multiple stems.  The plant, though, is rather short at about 3 1/2 feet.

'Shine'

'Shine' is peaking over the chain-link fence that divides us from the neighbors and currently has only one small bloom.  I'm expecting more, however.

The other three cultivars (Japanese Silverleaf, Red Courtesan, and Mammoth) are already sturdy plants with multiple blooms and all are growing extremely tall.  I have every intention of gathering many seeds this fall in the hope of further expanding these lovely plants next year.