Sunday, August 21, 2011

Little Bits of Sunshine

The first year I planted a garden after we moved to this house, some 10 or 11 years ago, I planted large sunflowers at the edge of my garden. They grew beautifully! I always leave the sunflowers in the garden at the end of the season so the birds can feed on them through the winter. And each summer they reseeded themselves. The first few years I still had large sunflowers, altho each year they grew a bit smaller. Then, about 4 years ago, this happened! They are more like sunflower "bushes" or "trees". Lots of little sunflowers. I love them! And so do the birds. This summer we could float in the pool and watch the hummingbirds buzz around. There were cardinals and one day some little yellow birds, maybe goldfinches. Two years ago because of all of the rain, I didn't even try to put out the garden. But the sunflowers grew. I'll always let the sunflowers grow!

2 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

My SIL, a gardener extraordinaire, says when plants do this they are going back to their genetic roots. Us humans developed the giant sunflower head. All my sunflowers in my deck planters are escapees from the birdfeeder.

Sadie J said...

My Marigolds have done the same thing. They started out as large hybrids and have reverted back to the small ones over the years. That's one of the reasons I rarely save tomato seeds--I would rather have large ones than small, and they always turn out small the second year!lol