We have our first sunflower! Here is a gallery of photos showing the progression over time of the sunflowers from seed to flower since I planted them back in early May.
I started planting 14 seeds.
9 of them sprouted.
As they grew I had to transplant them from the ice cube tray in the kitchen windowsill into a bigger bucket. I kept them indoors during the night to protect them from the elements and the squirrels( who destroyed them all last year) and brought them out all day for sunlight until they grew bigger and stronger.
Here are my 2 Star sunflowers; growing bigger and taller than the rest. reach for the stars, boys!
As they grew bigger and stronger I transplanted them yet again into biiger, permanant quarters outdoors. At this point they only get brought inside during a severe storm, like with strong winds, hail, tornado, etc. I sprinkled Cayenne pepper around them when they were newly planted to repel the squirrels so they wouldn't dig them up sensing a freshly-dug spot in the dirt.
As they grew I soon noticed a pattern and difference in size: of the 9 2 were extra tall, 4 were tall but smaller and 3 were much smaller.
Getting bigger every day!
Now you can see the 2 tall ones have eclipsed the others! Giants!
Look! A bud is forming ! Almost there at last!
Nice big bud.
The day before it opened.
Ta-da! First flower! Yay! Interestingly, it was NOT on one of the taller ones like I had expected the bloom came, but from one of the 3 smaller plants, so you can never tell.Never assume.
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