July 17, 2014 by Born To Organize

Smiling Sunflowers

Incoming bee

Okay, technically sunflowers don’t smile. The effect is pretty much the same, though. When I look out my window they’re waving in the breeze, nodding their sunny flower heads and vibrating with bees. Maybe I’m the one smiling, but either way it’s contagious.

Bees move between the sunflowers and the pumpkin vines

The tallest of the sunflowers is my height: 5’10” or 177 cm. It was the first on the scene. I planted a variety of sunflowers this year, so each one is a bit different. One of the flowers just reaches my knee.

Brothers and sisters

Knee high sunflower

Yesterday I gently untangled a few overzealous pumpkin vines, redirecting them back towards the deck. As soon as the sunflowers go to seed, they’ll be overrun by squirrels. I don’t want my furry visitors trampling the pumpkins in their quest. Sunflower stems are sturdy enough to support the heavy seeds. They are not, however meant to withstand the added weight of a squirrel running up and down at snack time.

A little history:

Sunflower (Helianthus annus) is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence (flowering head). The sunflower is named after its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. It has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds, often in the hundreds, on a receptacle base. From the Americas, sunflower seeds were brought to Europe in the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a widespread cooking ingredient. Leaves of the sunflower can be used as cattle feed, while the stems contain a fibre which may be used in paper production. – Wikipedia

Sunflower bud, about a week before it bloomed

Ready to meet the world

Bronze-centered flower

Here’s a story that will leave you smiling like a sunflower:

The Fukushima Sunflower project is now following the lead of Chernobyl, and fields of sunflowers are bursting into bloom across this contaminated area of Japan. Volunteers, farmers, and officials planted the flowers so that they can absorb the radiation that leaked into the soil from the region’s damaged nuclear power plant. There are concerns that the contamination is mainly in the topsoil and that the roots of the flowers are too deep to absorb it. Time will tell whether this project will be a success.

Officials are hoping that the local economy will benefit as much from the project as the environment. They are hoping tourists will come back to the region to admire the sunflower fields. Due to this magnificent flower’s ability to assist in getting rid of nuclear waste, it has become the international symbol of nuclear disarmament.

I’m smiling. How about you?

Sunflowers along the deck

May 22, 2014 by Born To Organize

Sunflowers Under Cover

A few years back, I had to plant my sunflower seeds three times. The first crop, lovingly planted with my son, disappeared. I’m not naming names, but I saw this little fella in the neighborhood around the same time.

Doesn’t he look guilty?

I planted the second batch indoors, then transplanted them, but they were leggy and weak.

Refusing to be outsmarted yet again, I came up with a solution after wandering around the hardware store. I bought small screens, designed to be placed in windows for about $6 a piece. Any money I saved buying seeds instead of starter plants went out the window that year, but since then, they’ve proved to be an investment. I even loaned them to a friend off-season to rabbit-proof one of her plants. You can read my screen saver tutorial here.

This year, I simply planted the seeds and immediately covered them. Within two weeks, they’ve sprouted and grown. Once they’ve set true leaves, I’ll uncover them and off we’ll go.

Screen Savers protect this year’s crop

They’re not pretty, but they get the job done and they are only there temporarily. Mouse keeps a close eye on things.

Screening allows air and water to circulate

Budding sunflowers

I planted two varieties this year, both from Botanical Interests®: Sunflower Snacker and Sunflower Florist’s Sunny Bouquet, both Helianthus annuus (hybrid). The Snackers, planted in the back row, will grow 6′ – 8′ tall (1.8 – 2.4 m). The Florist’s Sunny Bouquet are a shorter variety, reaching 4′ – 5′ tall (1.2 – 1.5 m).

Please pop by again for updates. Meanwhile, how do you outsmart the foragers in your neighborhood?

July 29, 2013 by Born To Organize

Metaphorical Sunflower

Mouse *insisted* on being in the picture.

I planted an entire packet of sunflower seeds, but only one took hold. I’ve seen several fat and happy squirrels around the ‘hood, so I’ve little doubt where they went. That said, I’m more interested in the lone survivor.

Thinking that the surviving plant needed company, I headed back the to garden center and bought six sunflower starters. For awhile the plants were all the same height, but at the three-foot mark, the starter plants set dozens of blooms. The lone survivor continued to grow.

Metaphorically speaking, I can relate. One summer in my middle-school years, I grew from average to tall and stayed that way. Tall and skinny and very much in my own ‘shell’ I stood apart from the others. My pale English skin, tall carriage and bright hair were the antithesis of the California Girl. I was quiet, bookish, and painfully shy, and the occasional target of mean-spirited girls.

Today the surviving sunflower stands tall and straight. The proverbial late bloomer had her turn in the sun. Large leaves attract birds of all stripes. Blooms attracted bees. Now laden with heavy seeds, those mischievous squirrels will be back, but guess what? Times have changed.

This time, she’s ready.

alys and sunflower collage

September 12, 2012 by Born To Organize

The Great Sunflower Project

Have you heard of The Great Sunflower Project? It’s “The world’s largest citizen science project focused on pollinator conservation.” Simply put, ordinary citizens count bees in their yard and report it on the Sunflower Project site.

Gretchen LeBuhn, founder and director of the project, is a scientist in the biology department of San Francisco State University. She started the project to collect data on the effects of pollination in our own back yards. The site features several interesting articles and videos. You’ll also find reports on the collected data. Details and links to the site are at the end of this post.

Why count bees?

Scientific studies show a decline in honey bee and native bee populations. Bees are critical to agricultural success and really to life itself. The goal of this project is to obtain consistent results from urban, suburban and rural gardens throughout North America.

The Great Sunflower Project

People all over the country are collecting data on bee pollination in their yards, gardens, schools and parks. We take 15-minute counts of the number and types of bee visits to sunflowers (and other plants). We have been gathering information on pollinator service since 2008, and now have the largest single body of information about bee pollinator service in North America. Thanks to our thousands of observers, we can determine where pollinator service is strong or weak compared to averages. (Source: greatsunflower.org)

My sunflowers are going to seed, so it’s too late for me to participate this season. I’m going to tuck this away for next spring, and hope others in North America are inspired to join me as well.

What you can do:

Plant Sunflowers, preferably Lemon Queen
Register and report findings on the site here.
Purchase seeds through Renee’s Garden. She will donate 25% of her proceeds to the project.

September 8, 2012 by Born To Organize

Sunflowers: Setting Sun on the Season

I knew this day would arrive, but oh how I’ll miss them. The row of sunflowers lining the deck are starting to go to seed.

Impatient birds knocked over one of the lightweight planter boxes last week, smashing the largest flower head clean off the stalk and into a heap on the deck. My son helped me move the planters from the deck to the narrow space behind the lavender to stabilize the planters. Now wedged in place, they won’t fall over, but they look like they shrunk two feet. Hopefully the rest of the flowers will go to seed on the stalk. It’s a beautiful thing to behold.

Last year I placed the seed heads along our stone wall, just outside my office window. There I could watch the squirrels pick them clean. I don’t know why I find those cute little hands at work so appealing. I’m annoyed when they chew off the pumpkin leaves, but delighted when they snack on the seeds.

For my readers living in different parts of the world:

Sunflower (Helianthus annus) is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence (flowering head). The sunflower is named after its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. It has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers. The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds, often in the hundreds, on a receptacle base. From the Americas, sunflower seeds were brought to Europe in the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a widespread cooking ingredient. Leaves of the sunflower can be used as cattle feed, while the stems contain a fibre which may be used in paper production. – Wikipedia

Today I’m wearing my worn out but much-loved sunflower t-shirt with the saying “Love this Life” across the front. It’s my own little sendoff to Helianthus annus, flower of the sun.

Here are the last of them, photographed at dusk.

I bought my sunflower t-shirt in Hawaii from a company called Love This Life.
I blogged about the squirrel eating sunflowers here.
A little sunflower trivia. My favorite:

Floating rafts of sunflowers are being used to clean up water contaminated as a result of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union. The roots of the sunflower plants remove 95% of the radioactivity in the water by pulling contaminants out of the water.”

August 31, 2012 by Born To Organize

Complimenting the Sunflowers: The Color Purple

In color theory, yellow compliments purple. The colors are directly adjacent to one another on the color wheel, in the same way green is to red, and orange is to blue. Without consciously realizing it, I’ve complimented brilliant yellow sunflowers with purple Lavender, Ageratum and nearby Mexican Sage.

The sunflowers line the top of the deck, while the lavender shrubs grow in front. The fragrant flowers bump up against the steps, softening the hard edges. Lavender is one of my favorite plants. It blooms for months on end, with a distinctive scent, valued for its restorative and relaxing powers. I dried a bunch of lavender in the garage, and used a few blossoms in my bath. I’m dreaming up ways to share these powerful blooms this Christmas.

Lavender Lines the Deck

This week I planted Ageratum and Baby Tears in a moss bowl, added some LEGO® Brick furniture and called it a Fairy Garden. It wasn’t until I took a step back from the arrangement that I realized I had surrounded the sunflowers with purple goodness. I love the shape of the fluffy blooms, but I also delight in the little saucer shapes with the dotted edges just before.

Ageratum Graces the Fairy Garden

Dominated by tall grass, the Dwarf Plumbago is easy to miss. It resides in the lower garden and to the right of the steps leading to the deck. Don’t you just love the red burst of seed pods in the center?

Dwarf Plumbago

The magnificent Mexican Sage grows at the curb, in an otherwise unremarkable section of the sidewalk strip. The sage goes dormant around December, when we give it a hard prune, then resumes its show of color, spring through fall. It’s a popular plant with children on the block due to its soft, velvet-like flowers. The hummingbirds are also big fans, frequently tussling over the right of territory.