This monster of a volunteer sunflower was at least 12 feet tall and had many, many noggins! They were not the largest sunflower blossoms that I’ve ever grown, but they did make a very nice size cut flower to feature by itself in a good size vase. What I really loved about this sunflower is that it accommodated a lot of hungry bees and butterflies — more by far, it seemed, than it’s single headed siblings, even with their much larger flowers. (I guess bees don’t tend to like sharing flowers with one another, even large size flowers. 😉
For this coming summer I purchased some small amounts of seeds for new types of sunflowers that I haven’t grown before… White Nite (a creamy white sunflower… white! I can’t wait to see them!) A tall double called Starburst (interested to see if the bees like them as much since their floofy petals cover their polleny middles more than normal — also kind of curious about how many seeds they’ll have. I also got one called “Red Sun” which looks like a nice alternative to the Royal Burgundy which I can’t find in seed catalogs anymore.
Enjoy this summer throwback, and here’s a cheer for a new spring on her way to us even now!