FOTD, 9/13, The Giant Falls

Well, we enjoyed him throughout the summer, but the sunflower giants have finished their life. Their goal, beside being beautiful, is to create seeds…that create more flowers…that create more seeds…that …well you know.

***The giant at his most beautiful – over 11 feet tall***

I find the evolution of the bloom itself amazing. It never stops growing. It can’t, for it has to get big enough to sustain the growth of the seeds. The bloom at the stage above is approximately 9 inches, not counting the beautiful yellow petals. But once the petals die and fall off, the flower center continues to gain in size as it produces the hundreds of seeds.

***The inner bloom now is over 14 inches***

The much needed rain we had this past weekend did the giant in, as the stem could no longer support the bloom’s weight of over 4 pounds. The stalk had bent over from its weight over the last few weeks to nearly 180 degrees but the hardiness of the stalk refused to let the bloom fall. It fell over from the root ball and soft ground. I could not get my fingers completely around the stalk.

***Stalk was almost 3 inches in diameter.***

I had to take a machete to take it to get it to the trash pile but I put the bloom out for the birds to enjoy the seeds. Yes, I will pull some seeds for next years project…a sunflower circle, a fun thing we saw on FB. I still have 1 giant left and 1 multi-bloom that are still surviving. I was also amazed by the size of the leaves. They looked like elephant ears – over 18 inches across.

But the seeds were the most amazing how they are packed tighter than seeds in a grape.

Look at the little flowerets for the ends of the seeds.

***A macro to show how tightly packed they are.***

For now is the time for season change. The sugar maples are beginning to change to show their red beauty with a sprinkling of yellow scattered through the leaves. As the season changes to a cooler climate, remember to keep your kindness warm.

FOTD, August 27

Cee’s Flower of the Day is always a favorite and I am being a bit of a broken record as its Sunflowers…again. This will probably be the last picture of them in my yard for this season because the seeds are forming and the blooms are getting HEAVY. When you have a single bloom that is easily 24 inches across, that is huge, especially when its a good 10-12 feet in the air.

***The bloom is so heavy, the stalk has arched over to keep from breaking.***

I have square “working” hands like my dad but you can still see I could not get the entire leaf in the photo. It measures 16 inches at its widest point.

I still have one stalk left of the multiple blooms variety. They too are dwindling, not only from the storm last week but their seeds make them heavy as well. These blooms are only 6-8 inches across but when you have well over 25 blooms on one stalk, that’s a lot of weight.

But the bees still love them. These multiple blooms brought in a lot of bees this year as well as goldfinches and sparrows.

I close as always with a reminder to be kind. If we as creation from the maker above could show the kindness to others as he has always shown us, what a different world this would be.

Laziness vs. Determination

In a world of confusion and mixed ideas of laziness vs work ethic, I think we can all take a cue from the animal kingdom. They have one goal in mind – take care of family and make sure there is enough food for everyone.

As I was out today taking pictures of the giant 12′ sunflower at the church’s community garden…

And the 10′ giants…

I noticed an extremely determined bee, trying to get to the richest part of the nectar of a misplaced marigold flower, with it’s head buried deep in the flower with a back leg sticking straight up in air for balance.

The bee was enjoying this accidental planting inside the raised tomato planter and I was able to snatch a timely macro photo.

Nature can teach us a lot about life is we stop long enough to see its beauty. And with all of the beauty you may or may not see, I remind you to share kindness in all that you do so that others see the beauty in you.

FOTD, August 3, Storm Damage

We all love our flowers, some of us more than others but still I think everyone enjoys flowers to some degree. And we all love summer and summer weather…most of the time. Sometimes summer weathers is just down right destructive. Case in point…todays weather…

And with the wind and heavy rain we have damage…

With large heavy blooms, they easily fall victim to wind as it whirls down our street and up from the river valley. But we do have a little enjoyment left from these beauties…we bring them inside…

I still have some big beauties left to help my yard smile…

Even though the wind was not kind, I am still enjoying the kindness of the flowers inside. Remember to always be kind, even if you have to be creative.

FOTD, July 7

Thank you Cee for the fun in sharing our flowers with everyone.

Today I post the picture of my first sunflower of the season. This particular one was planted by the birds from several of the sunflowers that bloomed in that area last summer. The bloom is not as large as some I have had but the color is a yummy lemon yellow.

It stands about nine feet tall and has multiple blooms forming for future openings this summer. The twelve footers I planted this year are not ready yet. I was late getting them planted, so we will have warm smiles all summer long.

If you get the opportunity, share the warmth of kindness with others this summer. Kindness can alleviate a lot of sadness in our lives so spread it around.

FOTD, March 28

Technically for me its still the 27th but…We are tying in with Cee’s challenge for the 28th to showcase the beauty of flowers regardless of the day.

Since mine are not up yet, I give you archives of last summer as the hopes of this summers sunflowers are just now breaking ground.

My neighbors loved my sunflowers so much last year, we are planting them again this year. They are just beginning to break ground in their little cups. Hopefully it will warm up soon before they get too big. LOL.

And with all things spring in mind, lets warm up our kindness as well.

FOTD -“The Penthouse” Doth Fall

Cee Neuner has created a wonderful challenge called Flower of the Day where we can share beauty, amazement…and laughter. Today we are sharing amazement with a hint of laughter. Last week I posted a FOTD called “The Penthouse” where I highlighted my last sunflower that had been taken over by my Birdnest gourd with a gourd hanging from the drying flower. So we are going to give a little history of this summer’s fun time so you can get a better idea of “summer’s last effort” to hang on.

The sunflower itself grew 13.5 feet tall before it created the largest bloom of any of the other sunflowers planted. I thought it interesting that although all the seeds came from the same package…they indeed did not have the same parents. Or maybe its the magic the bees create as they move from flower to flower. Some plants created many smaller blooms and some created one massive bloom.

The picture to the left was one plant with 16 blooms while the picture to the right is one huge 9.5 inch bloom. The plant that created the penthouse was featured in a separate post due to the massiveness of the stalk – 4 inch wide and 13.5 feet high.

***Picture taken early summer , now much thicker***

“The summer’s last effort was a thunderstorm to mark the end of 90 temps of summer. While I love summer, this was a hot one and I am glad to see the season begin to change. Although if Farmer Almanac and my exterminator are correct – its gonna be a cold rough winter here in the upper midwest.

When you have a huge sunflower, weighing in at 3.5 pounds, two Birdnest gourds, one weighing 2.5 pounds and mix in 35 MPH winds, that is no match for that 13.5′ high, 4 inch stalk, and down she came. The sunflower measured in at 14 inches and while one the gourds is still attached to the the mass of vines, one broke lose and I brought it inside to hopefully finish curing.

The glare on the tape of the first picture did not show its numbers so I added a second photo. You get a visual of just how large these flowers can get and then the gourd is no small fry. This is not even one of the bigger ones, so we will see how they all do.

Now I wait for the cold air to come in and dry out the vines. It will make an interesting Halloween decoration. Not a big fan of Halloween but it is what it is.

In closing I remind you the beauty and power of being kind. It creates a brightness like nothing else.

FOTD – Sept 4, More of the Same

Cee’s FOTD shows us again the beauty of gardens even as fall approaches with her post for Flower of the Day. I am adding more photos of my accidental growing hobby, a plant that I did not realize would give Kudzu a run for its money, Birdnest gourds. I trimmed them back some yesterday to cull the attempt for full takeover of the yard, 2 garbage bags worth of cutback. I will not plant them again here out front but in reality I have enjoyed watching them grow. They bloom twice a day. One bloom in early morning and one in early evening, so that has been interesting. Each bloom does not create a gourd.

***And here is how we look today, the one on the far right.***

These average 8-10 inches in diameter but when you take in at the circumference, they are huge, 27-29 inches…and they are still growing. You don’t pick them until their stems dry out on the vine, then you store them in cool, dry and dark place until fully dry and hard. I will be curious to see how much they shrink when they dry.

***Three more gourds, We currently have 15***

But we do have 1 ten foot tall sunflower still growing, not counting the 3 four foot ones the birds planted by the feeder this year that should bloom in the next week.

**Sunflower** ***refusing to be over taken by the gourd.***

So I give you fruit and flowers for today’s FOTD. Enjoy them and have a great weekend. And as always, remember to be kind.

FOYD – July 23

Cee’s Challenge of Flower of the Day gives us a chance to share the beauty we see around us. Flowers are a gift that we get to visually share and enjoy. Today I have one of the many sunflowers in my yard and it has a visitor.

My giant varieties are out by the fence and will get shared later. And as always, remember to be kind. Kindness like the sunflower can bring about big smiles.

FOTD, July 18, Jacks Beanstalk

Spring and summer are such fun times for those of us who love playing in the dirt. Cee’s fun challenge of Flower of the Day, allows us to share this fun. I also love my birds and sometimes they help me by planting flowers with me. This year I wanted to plant a couple of sunflowers so then the birds can eat from those as we share in flowers together. So today we have “The Sunflower Collection” including one that reminds me of the story of Jack and his beanstalk. A few of these are easily 10-12 feet high but it has been so much fun watching them grow. People walking down the sidewalk always stop and enjoy them. The taller ones have not even budded out so I guess they are still growing. When fall comes and they die, I will measure them and let you know their full height.

Here is the group by my gate. My fence is 5 feet tall.

These are the ones the birds planted. Not quite as tall but lots of flowers, some not even open yet.

This one has a flower down low while it still reaches for the sky. It has a huge bud at the top.

This next one is the one I call Jack’s beanstalk. Look at the size of the stalk.

Getting under it, I was able to shoot for the sky. It gives us an idea of what Jack was seeing…sort of.

So much summer fun. I hope you enjoyed my sunflowers. I will drop off pictures as the giant ones bloom. In closing I remind us always the share the value of kindness. It does not have to be as large as a bean stalk but to the one receiving it, it may very well feel that big.