This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Saturday 5 November 2011

Goodbye Sunflower

It's time to say farewell to the sunflowers.

Most of the Giant Sunflowers (pictured left / photo taken 1st Nov) are on their way out. So sad!

Photo Below: taken 1st Oct.

The Teddy Bear Sunflowers, although the shortest in height of any sunflowers I've  seen, brought some colour to the borders. (Photo taken 1st Oct).

Pictured with Aster.
As of 1st Nov, the Teddy Bear Sunflowers are no more.
I'm not too fussed about growing Teddy Bear again. They were 'ok'.

Giant Sunflowers - photo taken 1st Oct. The Giants were damaged in our late Summer and Autumn gales. Maybe it wasn't the year of the sunflower?!?

Below: At 1st Nov, they're in need of removal. (I put the flower heads on the hedge etc for the birds).

Left: a few (very late) sunflowers - still to flower. They were damaged by pests in early summer (but kept growing)... wondering if they will bloom before the frost gets them.

Sunflowers at their best, Sept 2011.

The red 'Autumn Beauty' Sunflower seeds grew but never flowered - perhaps enjoyed by the slugs and snails!

7 comments:

  1. I quite like the sunflower heads to be at a level that I can appreciate the flowers but must admit I'd seen Teddy in seed catalogues and thought that it didn't really say sunflower to me and the double flowers would make it less accessible to bees.

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  2. I'm with you on the Teddy Bears. We grew them a couple of years, the first year they were great, every other time from there on I found they got some sort of blight and turned black in the center before they achieved anything noteworthy bloom-wise.

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  3. You've had some beauties in the garden, and they've lasted well too. It looks like the birds are going to have a feast.

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  4. Hi Kelli, will you save any of the seeds and try them from your own seeds next Spring? I agree that the tall sunflowers are prettier than the Teddy Bears.

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  5. I'd never be satisfied with the number of Sunflowers I could grow in my little garden. I'd want a HUGE field of them, like you see in the Mediterranean countries.

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  6. It's so sad to say goodbye to the blooms after the summer is over. They were so pretty. I hope you plant more next year!

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  7. That's a lot of sunflowers! Birds sure love them well!

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